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Professional negligence claims 'rocket'

Published on 28 Jan 2010 under category: legal

New figures have shown that professional negligence complaints against doctors have shot up, particularly with regard to out-of-hours services.

The Medical Defence Union, an organisation which offers legal advice to doctors, found that complaints about the service increased from 337 in 2005/6 to 517 over the past two years.

The new statistics were revealed during an inquest into the death of a 70-year-old man from Cambridgeshire, who may have died due to being prescribed ten times the recommended daily dose of a drug by an out-of-hours doctor.

Dr Stephen Green, MDU head of risk management, said: 'Compared to the many millions of patients who are seen out of hours each year, the number of complaints notified to us by our members is small. However out of hours care continues to represent a significant and growing proportion of the complaints we see.'

Out of the complaints, 13 were referred to the General Medical Council.

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