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Found 141 results
  1. News Article
    More than three quarters of all multimillion-pound NHS medical negligence payouts are the consequences of failures in maternity care, new figures show. In total, 364 patients or families received the highest-value compensation payments of at least £3.5 million after suing the NHS last year. Of those, 279 (77%) were maternity-related damages, according to figures from NHS Resolution. The large payouts have been offered to parents whose babies were stillborn or suffered avoidable life-changing disabilities or brain injuries. Maternity makes up the bulk of NHS compensation payments. There were more than 10,000 clinical negligence claims brought against the NHS in 2021-22, with a total value of more than £6 billion. Maternity accounted for 62% of payments, or £3.74 billion. When taking into account all cost of harm, including future periodic payments and legal costs, the cost of compensating mothers and their families rises to £8.2 billion a year. Analysis by The Times Health Commission found that this is more than twice the £3 billion spent by the NHS annually on maternity and neonatal services. Maternity claims have increased during the past decade amid a string of high-profile scandals and a shortage of midwives. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 12 June 2023
  2. News Article
    The amount of government money spent on medical negligence cases and legal fees in Northern Ireland doubled within a year. Just over £20m was paid out during 2020-21 but that increased to more than £40m in the 2021-22 financial year. Last year, £30.7m was paid out in damages, while £5.9m went on plaintiff costs and £3.7m in defence costs. The increase in cost is being attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, 3,987 clinical negligence cases were open. Almost half (1,813) of all cases open in 2021-22 related to four specialties: Obstetrics - 564 Accident and emergency - 456 Neurology - 407 General surgery - 386 There has been a stark increase in the number of cases relating to neurology in the past five years from 23 in 2017-18 to 407 in 2021-22. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 April 2023
  3. News Article
    Dilshad Sultana was 36 weeks pregnant with her second child in 2019 when she experienced stomach pain and noticed her baby was moving less. Mrs Sultana, from Sutton Coldfield, said she had been due to have a Caesarean section on 8 July but on 20 June she started to feel pain in her abdomen and lower back. She said she was confused but that it did not feel like a contraction and called hospital staff at about 17:00 to say it felt like her baby was moving less. After following advice to rest and take pain relief, she attended hospital at about 22:30 and staff started monitoring Shanto's heart rate. It was not until almost three hours later that Shanto was delivered by emergency C-Section. Shanto suffered severe brain damage and would spent the next 22 days in intensive care, suffering seizures and multiple brain haemorrhages. Shanto now requires around-the-clock care and Mrs Sultana enlisted lawyers to pursue a care of medical negligence against the trust. Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust has admitted liability and made a voluntary interim payment allowing the family to move to a new home specifically adapted to meet Shanto's extensive care, therapy and equipment needs. Fiona Reynolds, the chief medical officer, said: "We'd like to offer our heartfelt apologies again to the family. "It's clear the standard of care we offered to them fell below those required and expected. For this, we are truly sorry." Now, Mrs Sultana is campaigning for change - she wants to see mothers listened to in maternity care and more attention paid to monitoring babies' heart rates. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 March 2023
  4. News Article
    A hospital trust has been told to pay almost a quarter of a million pounds after pleading guilty to failing to provide safe care to a patient with advanced dementia who fatally injured himself. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) brought the prosecution against University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust after an incident in July 2019, when a patient died after absconding from the hospital. Peter Mullis – who had advanced dementia – was admitted to Queen’s Hospital Burton emergency department and absconded twice. When he tried to a third time, he was followed by trust staff. The CQC described how, despite being followed, Mr Mullis was able to climb over a barrier, fall down a grass bank and hit his head on concrete at the bottom. He was airlifted to the local trauma centre, but died of multiple traumatic injuries. The CQC said UHDB did not take “reasonable steps” to ensure safe care was provided and that failure exposed Mr Mullis to “significant risk of avoidable harm”.
  5. News Article
    A woman was denied the chance to have children with her husband after a contraceptive coil was accidentally left in place for 29 years. Jayne Huddleston, from Crewe, had eight rounds of fertility treatment she did not need because the correct checks were not carried out by her doctor. She said the mistake happened in 1990. "The GP said it couldn't be seen, so I was sent for a scan and the scan didn't pick anything up, the GP recommended another coil was fitted," she told the BBC. She was told the coil she had fitted around a year earlier had probably fallen out. When she and her husband, David, then decided they wanted to have a child, the second coil was removed, but the first coil, which had gone undetected, remained inside her. They tried for years to have a baby, with no success, including IVF treatment which cost them thousands of pounds. The mistake was only discovered when she went for an X-ray in 2019 after complaining of back pain and the original coil was revealed. Mr and Mrs Huddleston were awarded a six-figure out of court settlement after taking their case to Irwin Mitchell solicitors. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 March 2023
  6. Content Article
    In this opinion piece, Kath Sansom, founder of campaign group Sling the Mesh, looks at flaws in the Government’s approach to women harmed by pelvic mesh surgery receiving financial redress. She highlights the unsuccessful case of Sarah*, who attempted to bring a clinical negligence case after suffering multiple complications as a result of pelvic mesh, to demonstrate that the national Redress Agency recommended by the Cumberlege Review is still very necessary.
  7. Content Article
    A recently published report highlights the shortcomings in care provided by the NHS. Peter Walsh, Joanne Hughes and James Titcombe emphasise how millions could be saved if people were empowered early on to have their needs met without the need to turn to litigation
  8. Content Article
    In this opinion piece for the Daily Mail, journalist Tom Utley recounts his recent experience of a seven hour wait at A&E after receiving abnormal blood test results from his GP. He argues that fear of litigation is causing GPs to refer patients on to A&E unecessarily, contributing to the overcrowding happening at emergency departments. He also highlights inefficiencies in the system and states that lack of staff capacity to tell him he didn't require any treatment meant he stayed an additional hour and a half in the waiting room.
  9. News Article
    About 4,000 UK victims of the infected blood scandal are to receive interim compensation payments of £100,000 by the end of this month. It is being paid to those whose health is failing after developing blood borne viruses like hepatitis and HIV. It is also being paid to partners of people who have died. Conan McIlwrath, from Larne in County Antrim, who is among the 100 or so victims affected in Northern Ireland said it was "very much welcomed". "This is the first compensation that's ever been paid - anything prior has been support," he told BBC News NI. All victims have campaigned for actual 'compensation' as they have said only this would acknowledge decades of physical and social injury, as well as loss of earnings and the cost of care. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 October 2022
  10. News Article
    The families of three patients who all died after undergoing the same specialised endoscopy procedure have accepted damages from an NHS trust. The patients all died after a procedure called an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Following their deaths, a coroner issued a report calling for changes. The trust said improvements had been made. William - known as Bill - Doleman, 76, Anita Burkey, 85, Peter Sellars, 72, and Carol Cole, 53, died in the space of about six months after undergoing the procedures. An inquest found they died as a result of complications of the ERCP - where a tube is passed through a patient's throat to examine and treat possible gallstones and other conditions. The families said they had accepted undisclosed damages from the trust over the deaths. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 October 2022
  11. News Article
    The NHS faces a record £90 billion maternity bill, The Telegraph can reveal ahead of a “harrowing” report into failings at East Kent Hospitals Trust. Official figures show the number of claims have risen by almost one quarter in just two years following a series of scandals. The data show 1,243 maternity negligence claims in 2021/22 - up from 1,015 in 2019/20. Safety campaigners said the figures were “staggering” - with £90 billion now set aside to cover the costs of claims. It means that in total, 70% of total liability provision for NHS negligence is associated with failings in pregnancy and childbirth, amid rising claims. The figure - equivalent to two-thirds of the NHS annual budget - represents an estimate for the total costs if all claims it expects to settle were paid out, at today’s prices. An NHS spokesperson said: “Despite improvements to maternity services over the last decade – with significantly fewer stillbirths and neonatal deaths – we know that further action is needed to ensure safe care for all women, babies and their families. “The NHS is ensuring that work is already underway to make these improvements, including a £127 million investment this year to boost the maternity workforce, strengthen leadership and increase neonatal cot capacity – which is on top of an annual boost of £95 million for staff recruitment and training announced last year.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 18 October 2022
  12. News Article
    Russell-Cooke personal injury and clinical negligence partner Grant Incles recently represented Mrs Karen Preater in a clinical negligence case over vaginal mesh surgery performed on her at a hospital in north Wales in 2014. Wrexham County Court found in favour of Mrs Preater, and roundly dismissed allegations made by the defendant in this case, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, that the claimant had lied in the presentation of her case, as part of a Fundamental Dishonesty defence. Mrs Preater underwent vaginal mesh surgery in January 2014 - to which she had not been properly consented. The surgery itself was performed negligently and as a result she suffered a life-changing chronic pain condition. In late 2020, the defendant carried out intrusive video surveillance of Mrs Preater and trawled through her life on social media, proceeding to launch a defence of Fundamental Dishonesty pursuant to S.57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. The defendant alleged that the claimant was seeking to lie to the Court about her ability to work and need for care and assistance which, if found to be correct by the Court, would have meant that Mrs Preater would have lost all of her claimed compensation, and which may well have led to an application by the defendant to have her committed to prison for her alleged dishonesty. The case was fought to trial over seven days in July 2022. HHJ Howells found that Mrs Preater had not sought to deceive any party at any time and should be fully compensated for her grave suffering since being injured over eight years ago. Read full story Source: Russell-Cooke, 4 August 2022 Court judgement: 22081101.Preater v BCUHB approved judgment dated 4 August 2022.pdf
  13. News Article
    A mother from County Down will receive "substantial" undisclosed damages over alleged hospital treatment failures and care given to her daughter. Christina Campbell from Ballygowan brought medical negligence lawsuits over treatment she received at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald after her daughter, Jessica, died in 2017 with a rare genetic disorder. The claim said that failure to test Ms Campbell during her pregnancy meant the condition went undetected. Damages were also sought for an alleged "ineffective" end of life care plan for the four month old. Jessica was diagnosed with trisomy 13 shortly after her birth in December 2016. She experienced feeding and respiratory difficulties, as well as a congenital heart defect and a bilateral cleft lip and palate. She was discharged from hospital with a home-based end-of-life care plan, including community and respite referral to the hospice, but a few months later. The claims said a failure to provide Ms Campbell with a amniocentesis test, which checks for genetic or chromosomal conditions, meant Jessica's condition was not discovered sooner. The lawsuit also highlighted concerns about Jessica's hospice treatment. It includes alleged uncertainty about the provision of humidified oxygen, a defective feeding pump and delays in a specific feeding plan and saline nebuliser being provided for the family. The family's solicitor said the awarding of damages "signifies the importance of lessons learned" as a result of Ms Campbell's campaign. "It is hoped that lessons can now be learned to ensure no other family has to go through a similar experience," he said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 29 September 2022
  14. Content Article
    In this article, John Tingle, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham Law School, discusses recent developments in patient safety in the context of possible reform of the clinical negligence system in the UK.
  15. News Article
    Attending physicians and advanced practice clinicians in US emergency departments are more concerned about medical errors resulting in patient harm than in malpractice litigation, according to a study published JAMA Network Open. The findings are based on an online survey of 1,222 ED clinicians across acute care hospitals in Massachusetts from January to September 2020. Respondents used a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) to indicate their degree of agreement with statements on how fearful they are of making a mistake that leads to a patient harm in their day-to-day practice, and how fearful they are of an error that results in being sued. The mean score was greater for fear of harm (4.40) than fear of being sued (3.40), the findings showed. Researchers said the mean scores for both fear of harm and fear of suit were similar regardless of whether the survey was completed before or after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although previous studies have associated clinicians' fear of legal concerns with "excessive healthcare use through defensive medicine," the role fear of patient harm may play in clinical decision-making is less documented, researchers said. "Although the study did not delineate the association between this concern and potential overuse of testing, it suggested that fear of harm should be considered with, and may be more consequential, than fear of suit in medical decision-making," researchers said. Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 21 November 2022
  16. News Article
    Families whose loved ones’ bodies were sexually abused in a hospital mortuary have yet to receive any compensation, because the Department of Health and Social Care has not signed off a proposed framework. A family member involved in the case claimed the delay was due to a “chaotic, splenetic mess of a government… [which] can’t get an arse on a seat long enough to approve it”. Former hospital maintenance supervisor David Fuller is serving life sentences for the murder of two women, committed two decades before he went on to commit sexual offences against 101 dead women and girls in hospital mortuaries in Kent. He was given a total of 12 years, to run concurrently, for 51 sex offences when he was sentenced last December but recently pleaded guilty to 16 additional charges involving 23 bodies and will be sentenced for these next month. But the families of the women and girls involved have waited more than a year to receive any compensation for the emotional distress his actions caused. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 November 2022
  17. News Article
    Almost one out of every three people infected with HIV through contaminated NHS blood products in the 1970s and 80s was a child, research has found. About 380 children with haemophilia and other blood disorders are now thought to have contracted the virus. The new estimate was produced by the public inquiry into the disaster, after a BBC News report into the scandal. In August, the government agreed to pay survivors and the partners of those who died compensation. The first interim payments of £100,000 per person were made last month. The initial agreement does not cover bereaved parents or the children of those who have died. A wider announcement on compensation is expected when the inquiry concludes, next year. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 November 2022
  18. News Article
    A baby was left "severely disabled" after a delay during his delivery by Caesarean section, a High Court judge has been told. Betsi Cadwaladr health board will pay £4m in compensation after a negligence claim was brought by one of the boy's relatives. He has required 24-hour care since his birth in 2018 at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire. The hospital apologised, saying doctors are "working hard" to learn lessons. "We are extremely sorry," barrister Alexander Hutton KC, representing the health board, told Mr Justice Soole. "[Betsi Cadwaladr] is working hard to learn lessons from this case," he added. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022
  19. News Article
    NHS 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
  20. News Article
    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
  21. Content Article
    In a wide-ranging Report on NHS litigation reform, the Health and Social Care Committee finds the current system for compensating injured patients in England ‘not fit for purpose’ and urges a radically different system to be adopted. Reforms would introduce an administrative scheme which would establish entitlement to compensation on the basis that correct procedures were not followed and the system failed to perform rather than clinical negligence which relies on proving individual fault. The new system would prioritise learning from mistakes and would reduce costs. Currently, litigation offers the only route by which those harmed can access compensation. MPs say in addition to being grossly expensive and adversarial, the existing system encourages individual blame instead of collective learning. This is a House of Commons Committee report, with recommendations to government. The Government has two months to respond.
  22. Content Article
    Medication errors are any Patient Safety Incidents (PSI) where there has been an error in the process of prescribing, preparing, dispensing, administering and monitoring or providing advice on medicines.  From 1 April 2015 until 31 March 2020 NHS Resolution received 1420 claims relating to medication errors.  This leaflet from NHS Resolution analyses closed claims that have been settled with damages paid and concern an element of the medication process: prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring. 
  23. Content Article
    NHS Resolution has published a set of three reports which explore clinical issues that contribute to compensation claims within Emergency Departments.
  24. Content Article
    Sharon Hartles is a critical criminologist and member of the Open University’s Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative. In this blog, Sharon reflects on events that have unfolded since the publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review 'First Do No Harm' report and the Government's response to it. She examines ongoing failures in the government's response and fulfilment of their policy recommendations. Related reading Primodos, mesh and sodium valproate: Recommendations and the UK Government’s response (Sharon Hartles, August 2021) Primodos: The next steps towards justice (November 2020) Mesh: Denial, half-truths and the harms (March 2021) Sodium Valproate: The Fetal Valproate Syndrome Tragedy
  25. Content Article
    This article details the case and findings of an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) into the death of Stephen Durkin. Stephen died after suffering organ failure from sepsis, while under the care of Wye Valley NHS Trust. His wife, Michelle Durkin, subsequently made a complaint that delays in the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis led to her husband’s death.
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