A solicitor who has represented many people from the Shannonside region in medical legal cases believes inaction by the government is driving up claims against local hospitals.
Figures revealed last week by Shannonside FM showed the Department of Health has recorded a large increase in payouts for clinical negligence at hospitals across the country.
Up to August of this year, almost 60m euro has been paid out in damages by hospitals in the Saolta group alone, which includes hospitals in Sligo, Galway, and Roscommon.
Roger Murray, of Callan Tansey which is based in Sligo, says it's important to remember that there are real people behind these numbers.
"The damages being paid in catastrophic injury cases have increased over the last 5 years because there's been an abject failure by government to comply with a recommendation. In 2010 there was a recommendation that periodic payments would be introduced to pay for the damages to a catastrophic injury patient. Behind all of these numbers are real-life tragedies, that's what we have to bear in mind. We can see statistics and on paper the numbers are increasing, but the human cost of that is massive".
