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Showing results for tags 'Negligence claim'.
Found 141 results
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News ArticleYesterday marked the second World Patient Safety Day, and this year’s theme shined a light on health worker safety – those on the frontline of the pandemic have been selfless in their sacrifices to care for an ailing global population. What has become ever clearer is that a health system is nothing without those who work within it and that we must prioritise the safety and wellbeing of health workers, because without safe health workers we cannot have safe patients. Improving maternity safety has been a priority for some time – although rare, when things go wrong the consequences are unthinkable for families and the professionals caring for them. Maternity negligence makes up 50% of the total value of negligence claims across all NHS sectors, according to the latest NHS Resolution annual report and accounts. It states there were claims of around £2.4 billion in 2019/20, which is in the region of £6.5 million a day. This cost says nothing of the suffering families and professionals associated. However, without investing in the maternity frontline we cannot hope to make integral systemic changes to improve maternity safety and save mothers’ and babies’ lives, writes Sara Ledger, head of research and development at Baby Lifeline in the Independent. "We owe it to every mother and baby to rigorously and transparently scrutinise the safety of maternity services, which will be in no small way linked to the support staff receive." Read full story Source: The Independent, 17 September 2020
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Content ArticleDo patients’ and families’ experiences with communication-and-resolution programmes suggest aspects of institutional responses to injury that could better promote reconciliation after medical injuries? This interview study of 40 patients, family members, and hospital staff in Australia found that patients have a strong need to be heard after medical injury that is often unmet. Although 18 of 30 patient and family participants (60%) reported positive experiences with communication-and-resolution programmes overall and continued to receive care at the hospital, they reported that hospitals rarely communicated information about efforts to prevent recurrences. Opportunities are available to provide institutional responses to medical injuries that are more patient centred.
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Content ArticleHealth care law is evolving particularly rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, families in England who have lost loved ones to the virus are considering filing clinical negligence claims. Perhaps in part due to the general, heightened public awareness of rights to sue for clinical negligence, people in the UK are now considering taking legal action against the National Health Service (NHS) for improper, negligent COVID-19 treatment. In cases of clinical negligence during COVID-19, a key issue centers around whether medical practitioners followed relevant clinical guidelines. John Tingle explores this further in his blog for the Bill of Health. John Tingle is a regular contributor to the Bill of Health blog and is a Lecturer in Law at Birmingham Law School in the UK and a Visiting Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago, School of Law.
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Content ArticleClinical negligence claims are often built upon a lack of adequate documentation of what was said and allegations that patients have not been properly counselled about risks and alternatives. Elizabeth Thomas explores in this HSJ article what this means for the increasingly significant role of telemedicine and the steps which can go a long way in reducing the burden on patients and the public purse
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Content Article
Coronavirus and clinical negligence (6 June 2020)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Blogs
This commentary from Nigel Poole, was published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management. Nigel discusses how the coronavirus pandemic will affect clinical negligence litigation in England and Wales. Subsections include: context is all the pandemic is not a license to act negligently expert evidence delay backlog in litigation a reduction in the number of new claims. -
Content ArticleIn order to obtain compensation for harm arising out of medical treatment received within the NHS in Scotland, the elements needed to establish negligence under the law of delict must be satisfied. The Scottish government has expressed the view that a no-fault compensation scheme in relation to clinical negligence claims made against the NHS in Scotland could be simpler than the existing litigation system and could support the development of the concept of a mutual NHS, as well as a positive feedback and learning culture. With this in mind, the government considers that such a scheme is the favoured way forward for the NHS in Scotland. This report reviews and analyses existing no-fault schemes in a number of countries/jurisdictions: New Zealand (NZ); Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway); and the schemes operating in Virginia and Florida (United States) for birth-related neurological injury.
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Content Article
What to do when complications occur (3 January 2018)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Processes
In this article, Cruikshanks and Bryden outline the process that should take place after an adverse event has occurred.- Posted
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Content ArticleJoanna is a Partner in the law firm Bevan Brittan LLP. In our interview, Joanna talks about her role supporting healthcare staff through the legal and investigatory processes that follow an adverse event, and why we must do all we can to maximise the opportunity to learn when things go wrong in healthcare.
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Content ArticleThis article, published by the British Medical Journal, argues that the NHS cannot afford to divert more and more money to litigation and we need to tackle the problem at source. Tim Draycott and colleagues set out four principles to reduce avoidable harm: Invest in staffing and infrastructure Really commit to learning Learn from high performance Enable and support system-wide safety improvements.
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Content ArticleThe No Fault Compensation Review Group were asked by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing to consider the potential benefits for patients in Scotland of a no fault compensation scheme for injuries resulting from medical treatment, and whether such a scheme should be introduced alongside the existing clinical negligence arrangements. This report sets out the approach they adopted together with their findings, conclusions and recommendations which help and inform consideration of what is required to ensure that the compensation scheme in operation in Scotland meets the needs of those involved.
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Community PostI’ve just been listening to the 10 o’clock news tonight and it has been covering the report into Paterson, the breast surgeon who may have needlessly operated on thousands on women. One of the recommendations is that patient safety should be a ‘top priority’ across the NHS (again!!). Another interesting recommendation is that the NHS (and private healthcare providers) need to be better at sharing information about medical staff. Currently, medical staff seem to be able to be investigated in one hospital, and then move to another without any of their history following them. Maybe we need some sort of central system, like Doctify for employers? What do you think?
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News ArticleNHS Trusts have spent nearly £20 million in four years battling whistleblowers, defending claims of workplace discrimination and fighting employment disputes, the Sunday Telegraph can disclose. Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) has revealed that a minority of healthcare trusts, often advised by the same law firms, are repeatedly running up huge legal bills. Former health minister Sir Norman Lamb said some of the NHS employment cases he has witnessed in the last eighteen months involved ‘scandalous’ uses of public money. “It is not all NHS trusts in the country, but there are a small number where the culture is clearly wrong,” said Sir Norman. Commenting on the findings, Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who has fought for whistleblowers in his own constituency, said: “Millions of pounds of tax payers’ money is being spent across our health service by NHS Trusts defending their actions in employment tribunals in cases of discrimination and unfair dismissal. It is only right that questions are being asked." Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 1 February 2020
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News Article
NHS faces huge clinical negligence legal fees bill
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS in England faces paying out £4.3 billion in legal fees to settle outstanding claims of clinical negligence, the BBC has learned through a Freedom of Information request. Each year the NHS receives more than 10,000 new claims for compensation. The Department of Health has pledged to tackle "the unsustainable rise in the cost of clinical negligence". Estimates published last year put the total cost of outstanding compensation claims at £83 billion. NHS England's total budget in 2018-19 was £129 billion. The Association of Personal Injuries Lawyers (APIL) believes the cost is driven by failures in patient safety. Doctors represented by the Medical Defence Union (MDU), which supports doctors at risk of litigation, are calling for "a fundamental" reform of the current system. Suzanne White, from APIL, said people came to her on a daily basis with no intention of suing the NHS. But she said they often found it difficult to get answers from the medical authorities - and were left with no other option but to sue. "What they want to do is find out what went wrong, why they have received these injuries ... and to make sure it doesn't happen to other patients." Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 January 2020 -
Content Article
NHS Resolution: Manual handling (19 October 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient management
From 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2019, NHS Resolution was notifed of 4,733 claims relating to manual handling. NHS Resolution has produced a 'Did you know' guide on manual handling. -
Content ArticleThis video supports the launch of our thematic review that presents a detailed analysis of claims made after an individual has attempted to take their life. Claims relating to completed suicide and attempted suicide are reviewed, regardless of whether the claim resulted in financial compensation. It identifies common problems with care and provides recommendations for improvement to support service delivery.
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Content ArticleThe distribution of malpractice claims among physicians is not well understood. If claim-prone physicians account for a substantial share of all claims, the ability to reliably identify them at an early stage could guide efforts to improve care. Using data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, Studdert et al. analysed 66,426 claims paid against 54,099 physicians from 2005 through 2014. The authors calculated concentrations of claims among physicians. They found over a 10-year period, a small number of physicians with distinctive characteristics accounted for a disproportionately large number of paid malpractice claims.
