NHS pays £300m in compensation

NHS compensation pay-outs for clinical negligence claims came to nearly £300m in 2003/4 - the latest figures reveal.

The £296,811,618 figure was released by Health Minister Jane Griffiths and shows a dramatic increase from 1996/7.

Then pay-outs came to just over £1m before rising to nearly £696m in 2001/2 and falling back to £335m in 2002/3.

The British Medical Association's Edwin Borman has said the current system for compensation in the NHS is "costly, unpredictable and often unjust".