SALISBURY'S NHS Trust has spent more than £30million on payouts to victims of medical negligence in the past five years.

New figures from the BBC have shown that Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust has paid £30,289,301 since 2012 to cover claims of medical negligence, some dating back to more than 20 years ago.

Salisbury's Trust was ranked 94th in terms of overall payout amounts, out of 258 Trusts.

It had the eighth highest payout amount in the region, coming behind Plymouth, North Bristol and Gloucestershire Trusts, but paying out more than Trusts in  Dorset, Bournemouth, Bath and at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The overall payout amounts by the Trust had been falling (from £6,852,347 in 2012/13 to £2,343,841 in 2014/15), but they peaked at just over £10million in 2015/16.

Last year, the Trust spent almost £8million on payouts, more than half going on damages and the rest covering defence and claimant costs.

The money comes from medical negligence indemnity cover paid by central government body, NHS Resolution.

Now the Department of Health and NHS Resolution are putting forward measures to cut medical negligence costs, including capping fees legal firms can recoup when they win low-value cases and plans to resolve more cases before they reach court.

Across the UK, medical negligence claims cost the NHS £6.2billion since 2012, £152.4million of that being spent on payouts for claims about historical incidents which took place before April 1995. 

In Salisbury, £955,974.42 of the overall five-year cost was spent on payouts for claims for historical incidents.

Money is still being paid out for cases more than 20 years ago, because of lengthy legal battles and new claims for decades-old incidents.

And in a number of maternity and neonatal claims, assessments about a child's life-long care needs can only be made when they are older.

Last year claims around childbirth and neonatal care made up 10 per cent of the overall cases against the NHS in England, but accounted for 50 per cent of the total payout amount.

Claims for avoidable cerebral palsy are “undoubtedly the most expensive” of maternity claims and can even exceed £20 million per claim, according to a recent report by NHS Resolution.

Critics say too often the NHS does not admit liability and then faces larger legal fees when it has to pay both its own and the claimants’ costs upon losing cases.

A spokesman for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust said they had no comment to make.