THE county's NHS service has spent more on mental health negligence claims than any other UK trust, statistics reveal.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS Trust paid more than £9million in settlement damages for poor care in its mental health and psychiatry services across five years.

The trust said the reason behind the high figure was due to an incident in 2013 where a patient had escaped and suffered significant injuries that caused large care costs for the remainder of the person's life.

It said the claim, which took place between April 2019 to April 2024, had cost them a significant amount.

The person is one of five claimants who received a pay out from the trust during the five years due to poor mental health care.

A spokesperson for Hereford and Worcestershire NHS Trust said: "Compensation claim award values are calculated based on a number of factors, but do not directly relate solely to the level of fault by the organisation involved. 

"Compared to the national average, the number of compensation claims we have paid are very low. 

"We paid out one high figure sum relating to an incident in 2013, which was settled later. 

"It relates to a patient who absconded from a psychiatric unit and suffered significant injuries, which has led to very significant care costs for the remainder of his life. 

"We are deeply sorry that they came to harm outside of our services."

According to a Freedom of Information Request, the combined payout of the five claims totalled £9,314,336.

The payout was found to be highest in any UK NHS Trust after Medical Negligence Assist compared the figures across all the NHS services.

The second highest payout was over £7million by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

A spokesperson for the trust added: "As in this instance in 2013 when we do get things wrong, we work hard to identify what has happened, look at what can be done differently to make improvements from this.

"High-quality patient care remains our top priority, and we are committed to continually improving the care we deliver."

Since 2019, the trust has had 11 claims and incidents of mental health negligence reported to NHS Resolution, which handles negligence cases on behalf of the health service.

Of these, five were settled with damages.

The trust was rated as “requiring improvement” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection in January.