Nearly 800 negligence and injury claims in north Wales

There are 790 open clinical negligence and personal injury claims against north Wales' health board, a report has said.

If all the claims were paid in full the sum would total more than £90m, according to the report to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Of those claims, 670 are for clinical negligence and 120 for personal injury.

The board said all incidents were carefully reviewed to help prevent similar incidents in the future.

Of the 670 clinical cases, 82 are classed as "certain" to be settled, and if paid in full could cost up to £64.9m in costs and damages.

Nine of the claims were valued at more than £1m, the largest being £9.6m in a case where a baby suffered a brain injury due to a delay in delivery. Seven of the nine cases relate to problems with births and pregnancies.

There were 37 claims classed as "probable", with a total of £24.9m involved.

One claim for clinical negligence involved a patient who fell at home but x-rays showed no fracture of her knee, despite her being unable to stand up. It was not until four weeks later she was found to have a fractured femur.

In another case, a patient who had a knee replacement in 2009 was still in pain four months later, and the problem was found to lie with the instruments used. The manufacturers have since redesigned the instruments.

The health board's liability is limited to £25,000 in each case, the remainder being met from Welsh Risk Pool insurance - the central fund used by all health services in Wales.