£2.4m and Counting: What Cornwall’s NHS Has Paid Injured Staff

Every day across Cornwall, nurses, paramedics and hospital workers turn up to look after the rest of us. But over the past five years, thousands of NHS staff across England have ended up needing protection of a different kind, suing the very employers they work for after being hurt, attacked or pushed to breaking point at work. And in Cornwall, the bill for that has now passed £2.4 million.

The figures come from Freedom of Information requests submitted to NHS Resolution by Accident Claims Advice. They cover the Liability to Third Parties Scheme (LTPS), the insurance pool that NHS trusts draw on when staff successfully sue them. The data spans the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25.

Where the money went in Cornwall

Royal Cornwall Hospitals accounts for almost all of the local total, paying out £2,396,245 in damages to its workers. That puts the trust third highest across the whole of England. What makes the figure stand out is how few people it came from: just 42 claims over the five years.

Cornwall Partnership also added to the regional figure, though far more modestly. The trust paid out £84,403 after receiving 29 claims, a striking gap given the number of claims sits not far below Royal Cornwall’s.

Together, that brings the total paid out across Cornwall to £2,480,648 between 2020/21 and 2024/25.

It’s also worth flagging South Western Ambulance Service, which covers Cornwall alongside a long list of other areas including Devon, Dorset, Plymouth, Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire and the Isles of Scilly. The trust paid out £187,554 to injured staff, drawn from 54 claims across the five years.

The national bill

Zoom out, and the numbers grow considerably. As of April 2026, the NHS had paid £98.97 million in direct damages to injured employees across England through settled claims.

But the true cost to the taxpayer runs much higher than the damages alone. Settled claims where staff won compensation racked up a further £86.56 million in legal fees. Of that, £19.12 million went on the NHS’s own defence costs, and £67.44 million covered the claimants’ legal costs.

Claims that the NHS successfully defended still cost money too: £5.26 million for the NHS, plus £144,055 towards claimants’ legal costs.

Add it all together and the grand total reaches £190,935,714 across England between 2020/21 and 2024/25. It’s a figure that could climb higher as more claims close.

What’s actually injuring NHS staff

Three workplace dangers account for the bulk of the costs.

Slips and trips lead the way, behind 1,763 successful claims over the five years and costing the NHS £25,771,768 in damages alone.

More troubling is what’s happening on the frontline. There were 1,021 successful claims from staff who were assaulted at work, leading to £18,105,467 in damages between 2020/21 and 2024/25.

Workplace mental health also came at a heavy price, with stress claims costing the NHS £8,844,569 in damages over the period.

The worst-affected trusts

Bigger trusts tend to report bigger numbers, simply because more people work there. Over the five years, University Hospitals Birmingham logged the highest volume of staff injury claims at 210, with a total payout of £2,570,672 in damages.

Mersey Care followed closely with 194 claims and £2,268,202 in damages. Manchester University saw 182 claims and paid out £1,598,228. Northern Care Alliance paid £1,112,416 across 162 claims, and Liverpool University Hospitals rounded out the busiest five with 158 claims and £1,044,867 in damages.

The single biggest payout for damages, though, went elsewhere. University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust paid out £3.02 million (£3,019,704) across just 44 claims.

‘Systemic failures on the frontline’

Patrick Mallon, head of Workplace Accident Claims at Accident Claims Advice, said: “Hospitals and healthcare facilities should be environments of safety and healing, but this data shows an alarming reality for the people keeping our health service afloat.

“To see more than 1,000 healthcare workers sue the NHS after being assaulted or falling on the job points to a systemic failure of basic workplace protection.

“Diverting more than £190 million away from patient care to fund injury damages and legal battles is a tragedy for an already cash-strapped service. Frontline staff have a legal right to a safe environment, and if trusts fail to provide it, workers must continue to use the legal system to protect their health and livelihoods.”

The £2.4 million paid out in Cornwall represents just a fraction of that national bill, but it came from a relatively small handful of claims, with Royal Cornwall’s 42 cases alone accounting for nearly all of it.