NHS Tayside was forced to pay out almost £500,000 in compensation last year as a result of clinical negligence.
The figure was released as part of an investigation by The Courier, which has discovered more than 100 patients and their families have taken legal action against the health board over the last five years as a result of malpractice.
In 2010 alone, £473,208.51 was shared by 12 parties, but a spokeswoman confirmed a small number of large-scale settlements were responsible for a significant proportion of the final total.
A further 13 cases were concluded, but the claimants were unsuccessful in their action against the health board.
This means the authority has already paid more than £700,000 in compensation for claims lodged from 2005 onwards.
Officials have admitted the figure may rise dramatically with time as proceedings often take several years to settle.
This includes the case of a 28-year-old Dundee woman who died following minor surgery in Ninewells Hospital in 2008.
The family of the woman, who suffered from the muscle-wasting condition myotonic dystrophy and died after undergoing surgery to remove lumps from her jaw, began the process of taking the health board to court last year after the public service ombudsman upheld complaints about her treatment.
We asked for details of proceedings that had been the subject of legal action, but a spokeswoman said NHS Tayside had “an implicit duty of confidentiality” to those who had complained about treatment and was unable to release details of claims even on the condition of patient anonymity.Data Protection ActShe said, “The details relating to the circumstances of a claim are personal information and the handling of personal information is governed by the terms of the Data Protection Act.
“It is NHS Tayside’s view that to disclose such personal information would contravene the data protection principles and therefore may be unlawful.”
North East Scotland MSP Marlyn Glen expressed her concern at the information and insisted money spent on settling large scale compensation claims would be better placed improving the delivery of services.
The Dundee Labour representative said, “The dedication and professionalism of NHS Tayside staff is a matter of record. However, errors have occurred.
“Without knowledge of the individual claims, my concerns are that money awarded to successful compensation claims means less money being available for other services.
“Furthermore, the figures may reflect the pressures the health board is under on staffing levels.”
A spokeswoman from the Scottish Government’s health and wellbeing department defended the nation’s record on the standard of care delivered by health boards.
She said, “The overwhelming majority of care in Scotland’s health service is of the highest quality, but wherever clinical negligence claims are made it is important health boards learn from them in order to improve care in future.
“Nationwide, the number of claims made in recent years has remained relatively stable but has included a small number of high-value settlements most of them being birth-related cases that often take a number of years to settle.
“Per head of population, the amount of money paid out in Scotland on clinical negligence claims is far less than in the rest of the UK.”