In January 2018 the Shared Data Unit reported the compensation bill for NHS mistakes that took place before 1995 - mainly maternity failings - had begun to rise for the first time in five years.
We discovered new clams were still being submitted for these errors dating back decades. It is thought increased life expectancy and rising care costs also contributed to the rising historical compensation bill.
This was the first piece of content produced by the Shared Data Unit including secondees to the BBC from the regional press: Annette Belcher from the Birmingham Mail, Claire Wilde from the Bradford Telegraph & Argus and Paul Lynch from the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association. Stories generated by the partnership included:
- The Times: 1990s NHS errors costing taxpayers millions
- Boston Standard: Trust’s £90m payout due to patient errors
- Blackpool Gazette: Blunders cost Blackpool NHS £42m
- Burnley Express: Medical blunders costing East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust millions
- Hartlepool Mail: Hospital trust defends £39million negligence payout claims
- The Scotsman: NHS Lothian paid out almost £33m for medical mistakes
- The Scotsman: NHS Scotland pays £193m in compensation over five years
- The Lancashire Post: £55m cost of Lancashire medical mistakes
- Chronicle Live: Revealed: The cost of historical medical claims on the North East's NHS
- Eastern Daily Press: Payouts to patients for medical mistakes at region’s NHS soars to record
- Kent Online: Medical blunders at Kent hospitals cost NHS millions
- Oxford Mail: 'ALARMING' - £90m cost of medical mistakes at Oxfordshire's hospitals
- Cambridge News: 'Patient care is top priority': NHS trusts respond after figures reveal scale of payouts
- Cambridge News: Shocking cost of mistakes made by region's hospitals revealed
- Peterborough Telegraph: Peterborough City Hospital’s NHS trust pays out £30 million in negligence claims over five years
- Birmingham Eastside: Heart of England Trust pays out £90m in compensation for mistakes in last five years
- Redditch & Alcester Advertiser: Medical negligence has cost Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust £46 million in the last five years
- Newham Recorder: Barts Health NHS Trust runs up £118m medical blunder bill
- Liverpool Echo: Liverpool Women's Hospital pays out £12m a year for medical blunders
- GK Men: Bucks' NHS Trust paid over £38million in 2012-17 for medical mistakes
- The Bolton News: £25m payout for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust medical negligence over past five years
- Bury Times: Pennine Acute named among 10 NHS Trusts whose medical blunders have cost the most since 2012
- Scotland: The Herald: Historic medical blunders mean rising payouts of tens of millions for NHS
- West Bridgford Wire: How much has medical negligence cost Nottinghamshire hospitals?
- Pirate FM: WATCH: The medical blunders still costing a Cornish hospital trust millions
- Spalding Today: Mistakes at Lincolnshire hospitals led to £90million-plus pay out in the last five years
- Lincolnshire Live: Medical blunders cost Lincolnshire hospitals a staggering £65,000 a DAY
- Bristol Post: Bristol hospital still paying out millions for Bristol baby heart scandal more than 20 years on
- The Northern Echo: North-East hospitals pay out £300m for NHS blunders
- Lincolnshire Reporter: Greater Lincolnshire NHS trusts pay out over £140m in medical negligence claims in five years
- 2BR Lancashire: WATCH: Medical blunders costing Lancashire hospitals
- Spirit FM: WATCH: The medical blunders still costing a West Sussex hospital trust thousands
- The Telegraph & Argus: Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust pays out more than any other trust in the UK for historic litigation cases
- Sun FM: The cost of NHS litigation in Sunderland
- Spire FM: REVEALED: Cost of paying out for medical blunders at SDH
- Bournemouth: Daily Echo: NHS trusts in Dorset pay more than £60m in claims after blunders
- Northumberland Gazette: NHS payouts: The cost of medical negligence in the region
- Sheffield: The Star: Historic hospital blunders in Sheffield are still costing the NHS millions in compensation
- Northamptonshire Telegraph: Medical ‘blunders’ by KGH result in payouts totalling almost £28m
- Brinkwire: NUH pays out £100m in compensation for negligence claims in just five years
- Salisbury Journal: Medical negligence claims cost Salisbury NHS more than £30million
- Lynn News: Millions paid over mistakes by NHS bodies serving West Norfolk, new figures show
- Sunderland Echo: NHS pays out £40million in medical damages claims in Sunderland
- The Berwick Advertiser: NHS payouts: The cost of medical negligence in the region
- Scotland: STV: Scotland's NHS pays out £353m in medical negligence claims
- Mix 96: Bucks' NHS Trust paid over £38million in 2012-17 for medical mistakes
- North-West Evening Mail: WITH VIDEO: Millions paid in compensation for hospital mistakes
- Birmingham Mail: Sick online trolls target parents of disabled boy after £6m NHS payout
- Teesside: Gazette Live: Revealed: The millions of pounds Tees health trusts fork out in medical negligence claims
- The Mirror: Medical blunders cost taxpayer £70million in just five years at just one hospital trust
- Romford Recorder: Hospital trust runs up £80m medical blunder bill
- Lancaster Guardian: £45m compensation bill for Morecambe Bay’s health trust
- Wandsworth Guardian: St George’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust paid out nearly £70 million of tax payers’ money for medical blunders
- Get West London: NHS trusts pay out £6.2bn in past five years due to medical blunders with one London site paying £123m alone
- Get Surrey: Mistakes made by NHS staff in Surrey result in payouts of £123 million in just five years
- Rutland & Stamford Mercury: Negligence claims cost NHS billions in compensation
- Bedford Today: Bedford Hospital pays out £28m in negligence compensation in just 5 years
- Gloucestershire Live: Gloucestershire NHS still paying out millions to patients who suffered medical mistakes more than 20 years ago
- Nantwich News: £25 million paid out in medical claims by Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust in 5 years
- BBC Wales Online: Welsh NHS trusts paying millions of pounds for medical errors
- The story also led BBC East Midlands Today and was covered by BBC Midlands Today, BBC Cornwall, BBC Somerset, BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, BBC Hereford & Worcester and BBC Radio Stoke
- Pie chart: Compensation for historical NHS failings in England 2012-17
- Line chart: NHS in England negligence bills over five years
- Bar chart: NHS Trusts in England with highest historical compensation bills 2012-17