Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt: Wrote off debts

The cost of clinical negligence claims over £30,000 is met from the All Wales Risk Pool, and NHS Trusts are required to make a contribution to this every year.

However, in recent years the cost of these claims has risen sharply and it is expected to continue to rise.

In 2000, £26.9m was spent by the NHS in Wales on clinical negligence claims, while it is estimated that claims which are still awaiting settlement could cost he health service well over £100m.

Last August, the assembly's audit committee warned that new systems were urgently needed to reduce negligence incidents

The chair of the audit committee Janet Davies said members were concerned at the slow pace of change.

"All trusts need to have systems in place to tell them what is going wrong when claims are made, but most trusts do not."

'No blame' culture

Of particular concern was the lack of information management had to enable them to identify the causes of clinical negligence indents and so make changes to prevent them.

Ms Davies said there was also a need for a "no blame" culture within the NHS so clinicians could speak frankly with patients and problems could be identified and fixed.

Last month Ms Hutt announced she was cancelling the outstanding debts of health authorities and NHS Trusts in Wales.

All loans made to health authorities and trusts before March last year are to be written off.

Dyfed Powys and Bro Taf are the main beneficiairies, together with three west Wales NHS Trusts and the Cardiff & Vale Trust.

Dyfed Powys Health Authority's loans total over £23m, while Bro Taf's debts are almost £7m.

The aim is to give the new local Health Boards which will take over from the health authorities in April 2003 under NHS reform in Wales 'a clean slate'.