NEW research has found Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust paid out over £6 million since 2019, for misdiagnosis claims.

Figures obtained by Medical Negligence Assist found the Trust paid out a total of £6,091,559, with the highest amount coming in 2021/22, standing at £2,647,024.

The figures also showed from 2019 to 2024, 63 claims regarding misdiagnoses were lodged against the Trust, 47 of which were settled. The highest number of claims came between 2019 and 2020, when 16 claims were made against the Trust. A year later, this number decreased to 12 claims.

Gareth Lloyd, a medical negligence solicitor, said: “Misdiagnosis is an all-embracing clinical negligence case type and covers a wide range of clinical situations from the simple diagnosis of a fracture to potentially fatal cancer diagnoses.

“These cases can be a matter of life and death, and whether someone lives or dies will be determined by the success of diagnosis.”

The reasons for misdiagnosis vary from case to case, but NHS Resolution highlights two consistent failings across England, one of which is diagnostic errors.

The second is issues with requests for imaging and follow-up, including failure to complete further imaging (e.g. MRI).

Gareth Lloyd added: “Misdiagnosis can have a huge impact on people’s lives. A common case of misdiagnosis is a scaphoid fracture, where typically someone uses their hands to break a fall.

“I’ve had a specific case in the past whereby a man in his early twenties suffered a fractured scaphoid that was initially diagnosed as a sprained wrist. As it went undiagnosed for a number of months, the client ended up having a fixation of his wrist, resulting in him not being able to use the hand and, as a consequence, has not been able to continue with his job.”