Documents show claims cost ULHG over €71 million since 2018

MORE THAN €71 million has been paid out in compensation claims by the University of Limerick Hospital Group (ULHG) since 2018.

The figures were revealed through the National Incident Management System, as taken from State Claims Agency data, after a request was sent to the Minister for Health by Deputy Sean Sherlock.

Documents show that since 2018, the seven major hospital groups have paid out close to €1 billion euro in compensation, the same amount allocated for Covid Health measures in this year’s budget.

The highest figure for ULHG came in 2018, when €34m was paid out in compensation. The following year, this figure dropped to €19m, then €9m in 2020 and further reduced to €8m last year.

“Safety is an important component of everything that we do,” the UL Hospitals Group said in response to a query put to them by the Limerick Leader.

“However, there are times when things do go wrong,” they said, adding that they actively encourage that incidents are identified, reported and reviewed so that learnings from the safety events can be shared to improve the quality and safety of the services we provide.”

Compensation paid is broken down into three categories: a) clinical care, b) physical, biological & chemical hazards and c) behavioural, psychological, crash/collision & property damage/loss.

In each year at ULHG, clinical care was the significant driver of compensation paid out.

The document, which delivered its data in tabular form following the query, also documented damages paid in the period 2022 year to date, with ULHG totaling €323,329, as of February 7.

This was significantly lower than the six other groups, with the next highest being Saolta University Health Group at €922,500 and RCSI Hospitals Group paying out €1.3 million so far this year.

“UL Hospitals Group has established structures that look at the learning from any safety event to ensure that it is captured for implementation,” they concluded.