News by Clarissa Bye
Premium Content
Subscriber only Medical negligence claims in hospitals are costing NSW taxpayers nearly $100 million a year, an investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found. The payouts are for medical mistakes and malpractice and can range from incorrect diagnoses, amputations caused by the wrong antibiotics being prescribed, to surgical procedures on the wrong body parts. Details of the cases are kept secret from the public and require numerous freedom of information requests across multiple local health districts to simply uncover the huge financial sums involved. The government documents show the Illawarra Shoalhaven paid out the most in 2019 - $19.95 million to finalise 47 claims.