Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to reports in the Financial Times on the rising costs of medical negligence claims in the NHS, said:

“These figures provide indisputable proof that the NHS is heading seriously downhill on David Cameron’s watch.

“Clinical negligence claims are up by 82 per cent since 2010, and the vast majority of NHS staff now say that David Cameron’s NHS reorganisation has harmed patient care. The sad truth is that by turning the NHS upside down with a damaging reorganisation and causing a crisis in A&E, this Government has made care problems more likely, not less. It is forcing the NHS to set aside soaring amounts for negligence claims – money that is desperately needed on the frontline.

“Labour’s plans to invest an extra £2.5 billion a year and to recruit 20,000 more nurses will improve standards of patient care and bring down this bill.”