THE healthcare organisation which runs Fairfield General Hospital is among the ten trusts whose medical blunders have cost the most over the last five years.

Figures from NHS Resolution — the operating name of the NHS Litigation Authority – reveal that in excess of £84m has been paid out in damages for mistakes made by Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust since 2012.

This places it ninth in a 'top ten' headed by Barts Health NHS Trust.

A total of 258 of trusts in England are included in the figures.

It is also ranked 11th for historical medical mistakes before 1995.

But it is only ranks in 89th place when taking into account the size of each trust based on the number of completed consultant episodes between 2012 and 2017.

The claims, recorded by NHS Resolution, include episodes of medical negligence both pre-1995, covered by its Existing Liabilities Scheme, and after 1995 insured through the authority’s Clinical Negligence Scheme.

They range from £12.4m in 2014/15 to to £23.4m in 2016/17.

Paul Downes, director of patient safety at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, says a new leadership team was put in place from April 2016 to provide 'direction and support'.

He said: "Since then many improvements have been made to make our services better. Improving patient safety across all our care organisations in Oldham, North Manchester,

“Rochdale and Bury is at the heart of what we do, so that Pennine Acute becomes one of the best and safest NHS Trusts in the country. We welcome NHS Resolution’s new incentive scheme for maternity Trusts.”

The trust found itself at the centre of controversy in December 2016 when a report into childbirth services at its hospitals described how bad medical decisions, poor attitudes and staff shortages led to deaths.

It focused on the maternity wards at North Manchester and the Royal Oldham Hospital – two of the hospitals pregnant Bury women now go to following the closure of the maternity ward at Fairfield Hospital in 2012.

Over the past five years, the Department of Health has paid out £152m, including legal fees, to victims of mistakes made before April 1995.

Hospital failings during childbirth accounted for more than two-thirds of this cost.

But the proportion of episodes attributable to maternity errors at Pennine Acute hospitals pre-1995 is well above this.

In the financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 100 per cent of damages claims were due to maternity errors, while in 2012/13 it was 98 per cent and in 2015/16 91 per cent.

In 2016/17 the figure dropped to 80 per cent.