THE health trust which runs Basingstoke hospital has paid out more than £39m since 2012 due to medical mistakes, new figures have revealed.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, paid out £39,010,238.56 in damages and legal costs between 2012 and 2017.

The figures come from the BBC’s Data Hub as part of an investigation into the cost of medical negligence in the health service.

In a statement, Alex Whitfield, chief executive of the trust which also runs Andover War Memorial Hospital and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, said: “We are constantly working to improve patient care through incident reporting, training, audit and implementation of recognised best practices.

“By continually improving care we can reduce the very small number of patients who have cause to bring claims against our trust.”

The amount paid out by the trust has been rising, from £6.5m in 2012/13 to £11m in 2016/17.

Of the 260 health trusts in the Data Hub’s list, Hampshire was ranked 68th in terms of those which had the highest total payouts.

In the same timeframe, the trust had also paid out £9,676.50 for medical mistakes made before 1995.

This accounted for just one payout in the 2012/13 financial year.

Other services named in the report which serve the Basingstoke area include South Central Ambulance Service which spent £6.2 million on legal claims between 2012 and 2017.

Southern Health, which covers mental health services across Hampshire, spent £8.2 million over the same five year period.

The figures also reveal that claims made due to medical negligence made in England have risen four times in 10 years.

An accompanying report added that claims made to trusts usually come from mistakes made during or shortly after childbirth.

The Department of Health and NHS Resolution has put forward several measures in a bid to cut medical negligence costs in England.

These include plans to cap the fees that legal firms can recoup from the taxpayer and to resolve more cases before they go to court.

They are also considering introducing a voluntary alternative compensation scheme for infants who have suffered brain injury at birth.