MORE than £25m has been paid out in damages for medical negligence by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust over the last five years.

Figures from NHS Resolution — the operating name of the NHS Litigation Authority — reveal claims against the trust since 2012 range from £2.2m to 8.7m

The trust ranks 114 out of 258 NHS Foundation Trusts nationwide for all pay-outs, its most costly financial years being 2015-16 and 2016-17.

And it is ranked 160 out of 205 trusts, taking into the size of each one based on the number of completed clinical episodes between 2012 and 2017.

All claims are for incidents after 1995, which are covered by NHS Resolution’s Clinical Negligence Scheme.

A spokesman for the trust said: “Any claim for negligence is regrettable, as we continually strive to attain high standards of care for all our patients. When this has sadly not been the case, we acknowledge this at an early stage and follow due legal processes to address this.

“Each situation is reviewed individually and we implement quality improvements in order to reduce the risk of any potential harm to patients.”

Some claims from more than two decades are are only now being dealt with as legal battles can take several years, and patients and families often do not realise they have a claim until well after the event.

Furthermore full assessments about a child’s life-long care needs can sometimes only be made when they are older.

The trust says it is working to reduce instances of medical negligence and its exposure to claims in future.

A spokesman said: “The trust is a member of the Open and Honest Care: Driving Improvement programme, which involves working with patients, families, carers and staff.

“We also have a detailed Quality Improvement Strategy which lays the foundation upon which we deliver care, and how we will identify areas we can build on in the future.

“We endeavour to learn thoroughly from all incidents, and have robust reporting and review mechanisms in place to help us do this.”

And it is also embracing measures put forward by the Department for Health and NHS Resolution to cut medical negligence costs.

The spokesman added: “As a regional centre of excellence for women and children, their safety is one of the trust’s key priorities. We welcome the recommendations in the national Maternity Safety Strategy, and are working through them to understand if there are any areas that we could make improvement.”