Queensland taxpayers face a multimillion-dollar bill as the State Government moves to compensate victims of overseas-trained surgeon Jayant Patel.

Premier Peter Beattie yesterday revealed details of a fast-tracked compensation plan which will cover victims’ legal costs and their expert medical reports and enable them to negotiate their claims outside the lengthy court process.

But victims who choose to accept the Government’s offer will relinquish their right to sue the state for more damages.

Mr Beattie said the actual compensation “would cost the state millions”.

Patients’ lawyer Ian Brown yesterday welcomed news of the compensation deal, saying it had the potential to deliver more to victims because it would be based on principles of common law rather than the limited statutory injury scale.

He said claims would inflate from anywhere between 150 per cent and 750 per cent under the system and would include entitlements for pain and suffering and loss of income.

“The bottom line is that the devil is always in the detail and it is subject to further discussions this week, but it is a major step forward and we are heading along the lines that we were advocating,” Mr Brown said.

Under the special compensation process, victims of Dr Patel will be asked to lodge full details about the basis of their claim and enter a mediation process with the Government.

An expert medical report, expected to cost $2000 per patient with the bill picked up by the Government, would then be completed detailing their injuries. Once loss of income and pain and suffering were considered, an offer would be made. Victims who accept the Government’s offer would give up their rights to sue the state for damages through the courts.

But they would not have to prove the Government was responsible for their injuries and the Government would not accept that it was liable.

If patients were unhappy with the offer they could drop out of their process and take their claim through the courts, although their legal costs would not then be covered by the new state scheme.

They also faced receiving less money because the state’s liability laws rank injuries on a scale and attach non-negotiable dollar values to them to calculate general damages.

These payouts are generally limited because they do not take into account temporary pain and suffering.

For example, under the Civil Liability Act, the payout for the loss of a testicle could be as low as $2000 but it rises to up to $20,000 under common law.

Mr Beattie confirmed the process would be more flexible than usual compensation claims.

So far, 169 compensation claims have been made to the Government from patients harmed by Dr Patel.