Through Norwegian Patient Injury Compensation (NPE), the state paid out more than NOK 1 billion after failures at Norwegian hospitals last year.
This is an increase of 3.5% over 2017, but NPE chief, Rolf Gunnar Jørstad, emphasised that this does not mean that the quality of the health services deteriorated last year.
‘’The increase in payments is due to the fact that we have dealt with more cases in 2018 than in 2017’’ he said.
28% of the patients who applied for damages last year were granted the application, and NPE paid out NOK 1,014 million in compensation to patients and relatives in 2018.
Coverage of loss of income in connection with patient injury amounted to 37%, and was thus the item that drew the most funds. Following this, coverage of expenses and permanent damages, which accounted for 29 and 21% respectively, were next.
In total, NPE received 5,677 new cases in 2018, a slight decrease of 2.3% from the previous year. The decline applied to both public and private health services.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
