Responding to the publication of the new NHS Litigation Authority Accounts, which show ‘a sustained high level of new claims’, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister Jamie Reed said:

“Today’s figures confirm that clinical negligence claims have soared under the Tories, increasing by 75% since 2009/10. This has forced the NHS to set aside billions of pounds extra for potential pay-outs, at a time when it is under huge financial pressure.

“The truth is that under David Cameron care quality and patient safety are getting worse. A&E is in crisis. Two-thirds of nurses say patients are missing out on basic care due to understaffing. And twenty hospitals have deteriorated to the point where they have had to be put into special measures – a damning indictment of the Tory record.

“By causing huge pressures and problems on the NHS frontline, the Conservative Government has made care problems more likely, not less.”