Cast of Principal Characters
Kingston University
Dr Carol Gartrell - Deputy Head of School of Performance and Screen Studies
Dr Frank Millward - Senior Lecturer in music@coombehurst and Live Arts
Mr Mike Searby - Principal Lecturer in music@coomebhurst
Dr David Osbon - Principal Lecturer in music@coombehurst
Ms Gloria Toplis - Principal Lecturer in music@coombehurst
Dr Gail Cunningham - Dean of FASS
Mrs Elizabeth Lanchberry (aka Liz Scholey)- Director of Personnel (semi-retired)
Mr Donald Beaton - University Secretary
Sir Peter Scott - Vice-Chancellor
Mr Zafar Ali - 'Independent' Investigator
Colin Watts, Christine Swabey, and other Kingston Board of Governors/St George's NHS Trust offcials
NHS pay out 10m to Kingston Hospital patients
4:33pm Wednesday 10th September 2008
By David Lindsell - Surrey Comet
The NHS has been forced to pay out more than £10m in compensation over the past five years to patients who suffered injuries as a result of their treatment at Kingston Hospital.
But the hospital will not release any more information about any of the incidents, what went wrong, the severity of the injuries, whether staff were disciplined or lessons learned because it says doing so would breach patient confidentiality.
The trust was responsible for £3m of negligence payouts last year including £1.79m given to mothers who suffered complications during childbirth.
A spokesman said: "Because of the trust’s duty to ensure patient confidentiality, it is not possible for the trust to provide any further detail, or comment, on individual claims settled on its behalf by the NHSLA.”
Damages amounted to £2.4m with an extra £179,283 pocketed by defence lawyers and £505,172 to cover the legal bills of the successful claimants.
The figures breakdown to:
• In 2003/04, 15 claims registered and £558,266 paid out.
• In 2004/05, 26 claims registered and £1.29m paid out.
• In 2005/06, 32 claims registered and £834,230 paid out.
• In 2006/07, 19 claims registered and £5.8m.
• In 2007/08, 18 claims registered and £3m.
The money was paid out by the NHS Litigation Authority, a risk-sharing NHS organisation which collects premiums from hospitals, organises settlements or defends them in court.
To get a payout, patients have to prove that they have been injured as a result of the negligence of a doctor who acted in a way which fell short of acceptable professional standards.
It’s not enough to prove another doctor might have done things differently.
If there was a good chance that the patient would have suffered the harm even if the health professional had acted differently, then the claim is unlikely to succeed.
During the five-year period, 110 claims were made although some may have not yet been decided.
Kingston Primary Care Trust paid out £15,800 in 2005/06 and £11,866 in 2007/08 while South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust, which includes the borough of Kingston, paid out £195,868 last year.
------------------
Webmaster's Note: Christine Swabey, current Board of Governors member at Kingston University is also Chair of the Kingston NHS Trust and was former Non-Executive Director at St George's NHS Mental Health Trust. Gren Collings, current Chair of the Board of Governors at Kingston Universit is also Associate Chair of the Kingston NHS Trust.