title: Estimating the cost of compensating victims of medical negligence.
abstract: The current system in Britain for compensating victims of medical injury depends on an assessment of negligence. Despite the sporadic pressure on the government to adopt a "no fault" approach, such as exists in Sweden, the negligence system will probably remain for the immediate future. The cost of this system was estimated to be 52.3m pounds for England 1990-1. The problem for the future, however, is one of forecasting accuracy at provider level: too high a guess and current patient care will suffer; too low a guess and future patient care will suffer. The introduction of a mutual insurance scheme may not resolve these difficulties, as someone will have to set the rates. Moreover, the figures indicate that if a no fault scheme was introduced the cost might be four times that of the current system, depending on the type of scheme adopted.
authors.affiliation: School of Management and Finance, Nottingham University.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fenn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dingwall
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007351:Insurance, Liability / Q000191:economics; D016365:Liability, Legal / Q000191:economics; D008318:Malpractice / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013222:State Medicine / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006113:United Kingdom