ESTIMATING THE COST OF COMPENSATING VICTIMS OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE

The current system in Britain for compensating victims of medical inju ry depends on an assessment of negligence. Despite the sporadic pressu re on the government to adopt a ''no fault'' approach, such as exists in Sweden, the negligence system will probably remain for the immediat e future. The cost of this system was estimated to be pound 52.3m for England 1990-1. The problem for the future, however, is one of forecas ting 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 d ifficulties, as someone will have to set the rates. Moreover, the figu res indicate that if a no fault scheme was introduced the cost might b e four times that of the current system, depending on the type of sche me adopted.