FOI reveals North London NHS trust paid over £27m in misdiagnosis damages

North London’s Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has recorded the highest compensation bill in the capital for misdiagnosis-related medical negligence, paying out more than £27 million over the last six years.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests by Medical Negligence Assist show the trust – which operates the Royal Free, Barnet, and Chase Farm hospitals – paid out £27,657,966 between 2019/20 and 2024/25. This makes it the most expensive trust for misdiagnosis damages in Greater London.

The data also reveals a high rate of litigation success for patients in the area. Royal Free London settled 107 out of 119 claims lodged against it, representing an 89.9% settlement rate – the second highest in the capital. The average successful claimant against the trust received £258,486.

Other North London trusts also saw significant payouts:

• North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust paid out a total of £9,425,754 over the six-year period.
• Whittington Health NHS Trust recorded the fourth-highest average compensation per claimant in London at £254,140, with a total payout of £6,861,770.

Across Greater London as a whole, NHS Trusts paid out £148,502,183 in misdiagnosis-related claims over the past six years, with 729 cases successfully settled out of 1,002 lodged.

Sophie Cope, a solicitor at Medical Negligence Assist, said:

“These figures point to a troubling pattern, where delays in diagnosis can lead to serious, life-altering outcomes for patients.”

London Misdiagnosis Claims Scoreboard

Highest Total Payouts (2019/20 to 2024/25)

1. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust: £27,657,966
2. Barts Health NHS Trust: £25,008,737
3. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: £20,512,147
4. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust: £14,604,030
5. The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: £14,592,652

Highest Payouts Last Financial Year (2024/25)

1. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust: £7,434,885
2. Barts Health NHS Trust: £5,094,469
3. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: £3,923,016
4. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: £3,103,598
5. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: £1,934,999

Most Claims Settled (2019/20 to 2024/25)

1. Barts Health NHS Trust: 116
2. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust: 107
3. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust: 105
4. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 94
5. Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust: 82

Highest Settlement Percentage (Settled vs. Lodged)

1. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 91.3% (94 settled out of 103 lodged)
2. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust: 89.9% (107 settled out of 119 lodged)
3. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust: 88.2% (105 settled out of 119 lodged)
4. Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust: 87.2% (82 settled out of 94 lodged)
5. Barts Health NHS Trust: 85.3% (116 settled out of 136 lodged)

Highest Average Compensation per Claimant

1. The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: £470,731
2. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: £369,550
3. Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust: £258,486
4. London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust: £254,140
5. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: £218,214

A £1.2 Billion National Toll

Nationally, the true scale of diagnostic errors paints a grim picture. A total of 9,989 misdiagnosis claims were lodged against NHS trusts across the country over the six-year period.

In total, 7,500 claims were settled nationally, costing the health service £1,201,500,909, with an average payout of £160,200 per successful claimant.

While numbers dipped during the pandemic, they have now surged to a six-year high of 1,922 new claims in the 2024/25 financial year alone. Over the six-year period, the national financial toll broke down as follows:

• 2019/20: £172,546,537
• 2020/21: £123,333,640
• 2021/22: £205,361,780
• 2022/23: £249,088,962
• 2023/24: £230,627,373
• 2024/25: £220,542,617

The Human Cost of Diagnostic Errors

Tracey McGrann’s story is a harrowing face of this growing national crisis. The Birkenhead mum-of-three was just 54 when she died suddenly in her sleep in May 2024 following a missed diagnosis.

Months prior, Tracey visited her GP with chest pains. An abnormal ECG resulted in an urgent instruction to attend A&E.

Despite a blinding fear of hospitals, she attended Arrowe Park Hospital, where another ECG was taken. Within minutes, doctors discharged her, insisting everything was ‘fine.’

Following her mother’s tragic death from ischemic heart disease (IHD), her grieving daughter Leah, 25 – who was forced to give up her career to raise her teenage sister – made a shocking discovery.

A memory popped up on her mother’s phone: a photo Tracey had taken of the A&E ECG monitor before being discharged. It clearly read: ‘moderate T-wave abnormality, consider anterior ischemia’.

Armed with this evidence, Leah confronted the hospital trust and discovered the ECG was never signed off, and with Arrowe Park not keeping copies of ECG results, Tracey’s photograph was the only paper trail.

“If they just looked at the ECG mum would’ve been on some pathway to receiving treatment. One director stated that if he was on duty that night, my mum would have been admitted,”

Leah told Medical Negligence Assist.

“In the meeting my mum was reduced to a ‘mistake’. How many grieving family members haven’t investigated the death of a loved one and not caught that they died as a result of a misdiagnosis error?”

Medical Negligence Assist offers expert legal support and advice to those affected by a misdiagnosis. You can book a free consultation or call their 24-hour helpline by visiting their website.