SOMERSET NHS Foundation Trust has paid out more than £230,000 in damages for gynaecology medical negligence claims lodged against it in the last five years, a new investigation has revealed.

Data obtained by Medical Negligence Assist has revealed the Trust, which runs Musgrove Park and Yeovil Hospitals, has seen 22 claims and incidents of gynaecology-related medical negligence reported to NHS Resolution, the legal arm of the NHS, since 2019.

The findings come amid a damning new report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) which revealed that women are being left in ‘debilitating’ pain for years with more than 760,000 on the waiting list for appointments due to a gynaecology care ‘crisis.’

In it, experts are calling for extra funding to speed up treatment for more than three-quarters of a million women currently on waiting lists.

The RCOG report adds: “Gynaecology has historically been perceived as less important in wider elective recovery, and this has resulted in an increasing number of complex cases, disease progression, emergency admissions and women living in pain and distress: all of which are preventable.”

Medical Negligence Assist investigated the number of medical negligence claims that have been lodged against NHS Trusts in the last five years.

It revealed that since 2019, the Somerset Trust has settled a total of 14 gynaecology negligence claims lodged against it with damages amounting to £232,684 - not including NHS or claimant legal costs paid.

Medical Negligence Assist’s investigation also uncovered the most common primary injuries and causes of claims which included, failure to act on abnormal test results, failed sterilisation and intraoperative problems - which are complications that affect patients during surgery.

The data revealed that across the NHS, 3,739 gynaecology medical negligence claims and incidents have been reported to NHS Resolution since 2019.

Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the RCOG said: “A way forward is urgently needed to tackle the UK gynaecology crisis. NHS staff are also deeply concerned and distressed that they do not have the necessary resources to deliver good care, affecting their own wellbeing.

“UK government must act now. The RCOG is calling on them to commit to long-term sustained funding to address the systemic issues driving waiting lists, alongside delivering an urgent support package for those currently on waiting lists.

“The investment will not only benefit thousands of individual women but the wider economy too, because the evidence shows that healthy women are the cornerstone of healthy societies. Get it right for women and everyone benefits.”

A spokesperson for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said: “We aim to provide the highest standards of patient care across all our services and have robust governance systems in place to report, investigate and respond when patients’ care falls short of those standards.

“When things go wrong, we work hard to identify what happened, what needs to be done differently and any lessons that can be learned, including additional training that can be shared with colleagues to improve our services.”