§ NHS · TRUST

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS Trust · Clinical negligence claims data for 2024/25

Maternity TrustLondonSW17 0QTMember since 1999

Total paid 2024/25

£27.8M

Claims received

83

Avg cost per claim

£335K

Region rank

#9 / 33

G
ClaimGavel Assistant
● Online · St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · negligence · free & confidential
FREE
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED — TYPE HERE

Start typing — your likely claim, value and time limit appear here.

Describe what happened (a sentence or two) to begin.

Free · confidential · not legal adviceEngland

NHS Negligence Payouts Are at Record Levels

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received £27.8M in 2024/25, against a national total of £3.1B. NHS negligence payments have grown consistently over 19 years.

£581.7M
£639.2M
£737.2M
£790.3M
£882.0M
£1.3B
£1.3B
£1.2B
£1.2B
£1.5B
£1.7B
£2.2B
£2.4B
£2.3B
£2.2B
£2.4B
£2.6B
£2.8B
£3.1B
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024

This trust

£27.8M

83 claims in 2024/25

National total

£3.1B

All NHS trusts combined

This trust's share

0.90%

Of national negligence payments

What is an NHS Trust?

An NHS Trust is an organisational unit of the National Health Service that typically operates multiple hospitals, community clinics, and specialist services under one legal entity. All clinical negligence claims and payment figures on this page relate to the trust as a whole, not to any individual hospital or site.

Types of Clinical Negligence Claims

NHS negligence claims span 19 medical specialties. While trust-level data isn't broken down by specialty, these are the national figures for 2024/25 — ordered by total payments.

#1
Obstetrics CP/BD

cerebral palsy & brain damage — e.g. birth injuries causing permanent disability

£1.1B36.8%

Total payments

£1.1B

Claims settled

237

Avg per claim

£4.2M

View full obstetrics cp/bd statistics →
#2
Other

e.g. physiotherapy injuries, dietetics errors, pharmacy dispensing mistakes

£461.6M15.3%

Total payments

£461.6M

Claims settled

5,160

Avg per claim

£57K

View full other statistics →
#3
Emergency Medicine

e.g. misdiagnosis in A&E, delayed treatment, triage failures

£249.7M8.3%

Total payments

£249.7M

Claims settled

1,327

Avg per claim

£127K

View full emergency medicine statistics →
#4
Paediatrics

e.g. missed meningitis, delayed diagnosis, medication dosing errors

£210.8M7.0%

Total payments

£210.8M

Claims settled

229

Avg per claim

£757K

View full paediatrics statistics →
#5
Orthopaedic Surgery

e.g. failed joint replacements, fracture mismanagement, nerve damage

£178.6M5.9%

Total payments

£178.6M

Claims settled

1,101

Avg per claim

£100K

View full orthopaedic surgery statistics →
#6
Obstetrics Non CP/BD

other obstetric claims — e.g. surgical errors during delivery, maternal injuries

£176.0M5.8%

Total payments

£176.0M

Claims settled

1,016

Avg per claim

£108K

View full obstetrics non cp/bd statistics →
#7
General surgery
£104.1M3.4%

Total payments

£104.1M

Claims settled

0

Avg per claim

£0

View full general surgery statistics →
#8
Neurosurgery

e.g. spinal surgery errors, nerve damage, post-operative complications

£77.1M2.5%

Total payments

£77.1M

Claims settled

157

Avg per claim

£344K

View full neurosurgery statistics →
#9
Radiology

e.g. missed findings on scans, delayed cancer diagnosis, reporting errors

£71.9M2.4%

Total payments

£71.9M

Claims settled

460

Avg per claim

£95K

View full radiology statistics →
#10
Gynaecology

e.g. surgical complications, missed cancer diagnoses, fertility treatment errors

£67.0M2.2%

Total payments

£67.0M

Claims settled

626

Avg per claim

£55K

View full gynaecology statistics →
#11
General medicine
£64.8M2.1%

Total payments

£64.8M

Claims settled

0

Avg per claim

£0

View full general medicine statistics →
#12
Gastroenterology

e.g. missed bowel cancer, endoscopy perforations, delayed diagnosis

£41.5M1.4%

Total payments

£41.5M

Claims settled

326

Avg per claim

£79K

View full gastroenterology statistics →
#13
Ophthalmology

e.g. cataract surgery errors, missed glaucoma, delayed treatment

£37.1M1.2%

Total payments

£37.1M

Claims settled

258

Avg per claim

£84K

View full ophthalmology statistics →
#14
Neurology

e.g. missed stroke, delayed brain tumour diagnosis, epilepsy mismanagement

£37.0M1.2%

Total payments

£37.0M

Claims settled

127

Avg per claim

£211K

View full neurology statistics →
#15
Neonatology CP/BD

newborn cerebral palsy & brain damage — e.g. oxygen deprivation at birth

£31.0M1.0%

Total payments

£31.0M

Claims settled

11

Avg per claim

£2.5M

View full neonatology cp/bd statistics →
#16
Cardiology

e.g. missed heart attacks, stent complications, delayed diagnosis

£31.0M1.0%

Total payments

£31.0M

Claims settled

200

Avg per claim

£94K

View full cardiology statistics →
#17
Urology

e.g. delayed cancer diagnosis, surgical nerve damage, catheter injuries

£29.2M1.0%

Total payments

£29.2M

Claims settled

265

Avg per claim

£63K

View full urology statistics →
#18
Ambulance

e.g. delayed response, incorrect triage, treatment errors en route

£27.1M0.9%

Total payments

£27.1M

Claims settled

170

Avg per claim

£107K

View full ambulance statistics →
#19
Neonatology Non CP/BD

other newborn claims — e.g. infections, feeding injuries, delayed treatment

£16.0M0.5%

Total payments

£16.0M

Claims settled

43

Avg per claim

£317K

View full neonatology non cp/bd statistics →

Where the Money Goes

Of the £27.8M paid, 76% went directly to patients as compensation — the remainder covered legal costs on both sides.

Patient compensation£21.1M
NHS legal costs£1.3M
Claimant legal costs£5.4M

Average Cost Per Claim

How the average cost per claim at this trust compares to regional and national averages. Higher per-claim costs can indicate more complex or severe cases.

This trust

£335K

National average

£240K

+40%above national average

This trust

£335K

London average

£240K

+40%above regional average

Maternity & Obstetric Claims

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides maternity services. Obstetric claims account for 40% of this trust's total negligence payments — obstetric claims are tracked separately due to their typically much higher value.

Obstetric claims£11.1M
All other claims£16.7M

Obstetric claims

14

17% of all claims

Obstetric payments

£11.1M

40% of total paid

Avg per obstetric claim

£790K

View national maternity claims data →

§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENTS

Court judgments involving St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Published judgments of the courts of England and Wales naming this trust as defendant, linked to their source. Judgments are a small, unrepresentative slice of claims — most settle privately — and a judgment for the trust is as likely as one against it.

Claim failed

LXLP v St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2026] EWHC 560 (KB)·2026·Liability decided at trial

A mother's waters broke at 27 weeks and a swab grew Group B Streptococcus resistant to erythromycin; the child argued penicillin should have been given before birth to prevent infection-related brain injury. The court held that following national rather than local guidance was not negligent and that antibiotics would not, on the evidence, have prevented the injury.

Following national guidance is a strong defence even where a hospital's own local guidance says otherwise. In premature-birth cases causation often fails because the injury would have happened regardless.

Mixed outcome

MAN v St George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

[2024] EWHC 1304 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

A woman went to A&E with extreme lower-leg pain and was sent home by a nurse practitioner instead of being seen by a senior doctor or referred to surgeons; she developed a necrotising soft tissue infection and lost her leg. The Trust admitted negligence but tried to rely on the nurse's evidence disputing how much pain she reported; the Master ruled that evidence inadmissible because the defence had never properly pleaded that dispute.

An NHS trust cannot admit negligence and then quietly contest the facts at trial without pleading them. Severe, out-of-proportion pain in a limb is a recognised warning sign of necrotising infection that calls for senior review.

Claim failed

Dalchow v St George's University NHS Foundation Trust

[2022] EWHC 100 (QB)·2022·Liability decided at trial

After routine day-case removal of a scrotal cyst, the claimant returned in the early hours in severe pain; intravenous antibiotics were not started when they should have been and an ultrasound request was delayed, and he was later diagnosed with Fournier gangrene, needing repeated surgery and losing both testicles. The judge found breach of duty but held the claimant could not prove the delays changed the outcome.

Proving that care fell below standard is only half the case: the claimant must also show the negligence made a difference. Where surgery would have happened at the same time anyway, delayed antibiotics or scans may not be shown to have caused the injury.

Claimant succeeded£92,500

Crossman v St George's Healthcare NHS Trust

[2016] EWHC 2878 (QB)·2016·Liability decided at trial

A consultant agreed a plan of physiotherapy with surgical review in three months, but the hospital instead listed the patient straight for surgery and warned him he would lose priority if he did not attend. He suffered a rare nerve injury in the operation, and the judge held that but for the hospital's failure to follow the agreed plan he would not have had surgery then.

Hospitals must implement the treatment plan actually agreed with the patient. A non-negligent surgical complication can still be compensated if the operation itself should not have happened at that time.

Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0. Judgments from Find Case Law, The National Archives. Summaries are ours; amounts only where printed in the judgment.

Source: NHS Resolution Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25. Data covers the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST), Existing Liabilities Scheme (ELS), and Risk Pooling Scheme for Trusts (RPST). This information is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.