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Found 559 results
  1. News Article
    A trust which last year was ordered to pay a whistleblowing nurse nearly £500,000 must now give a surgeon £430,000 to compensate him for the racial discrimination and harassment he faced after raising patient safety concerns. Tribunal judges previously upheld complaints made by Manuf Kassem against North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and have published a remedy judgment this week setting out the levels of damages the NHS organisation must pay. The judgment comes just over a year after a former senior nurse at the trust was awarded £472,600 for unfair dismissal after she warned high workloads had led to a patient’s death. Mr Kassem raised 25 concerns regarding patients’ care during a grievance meeting in August 2017. He alleged patients had “suffered complications, negligence, delayed treatment and avoidable deaths”. A trust review concluded appropriate processes were followed in the 25 cases. However, the tribunal ruled Mr Kassem was subjected to detriment after making the protected disclosure. According to the judgment, Mr Kassem was subsequently removed from the on-call emergency rota and his identity as a whistleblower was revealed by clinical director Anil Agarwal. In September 2018, he was the subject of a disciplinary investigation following several allegations against him made by colleagues and others, which concerned “unsafe working practices,” “excessive working hours,” and “potential fraudulent activity.” The investigation lasted 17 months and none of the allegations against Mr Kassem were upheld or progressed to a disciplinary hearing. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 March 2024
  2. Content Article
    The total value of clinical claims associated with emergency medicine was nearly £700m in 2022/23, making them the second highest total value of claims by speciality. This podcast focuses on clinical negligence claims from the emergency department, and how insights from claims data can be used by emergency medicine teams to help improve safety. Hosted by Justine Sharpe from NHS Resolution's Safety and Learning team, the episode features guests from NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time team and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Topics covered include: The key themes and recommendations from NHS Resolution's 2022 ED reports, including discussion of cauda equina and aortic dissection How to use local claims data from NHSR and operational performance data from GIRFT to inform safer patient care Insights into specialty reviews and handover, communication and the importance of multidisciplinary ED teams.
  3. News Article
    The Priory healthcare group has been fined more than £650,000 over the death of a 23-year-old patient who was hit by a train after absconding from a mental health hospital. Matthew Caseby, a personal trainer, was able to leave Birmingham’s Priory hospital Woodbourne by scaling a wall after being “inappropriately unattended” for several minutes in September 2020, an inquest jury ruled in 2022. The healthcare company pleaded guilty to a criminal safety failing linked to the death of a patient, breaching the 2008 Health and Social Care Act, at Birmingham magistrates court on Friday. The London-based provider was charged after an investigation into the death of Caseby conducted by the Care Quality Commission. Caseby’s father, Richard Caseby, who had been campaigning for a prosecution of the healthcare organisation, told the court the company attempted to “evade accountability for its gross failures”. In a victim impact statement which he presented as part of the prosecution on Friday, he said: “I found it unbelievable that a private company commissioned by the NHS to care for its most vulnerable psychiatric patients in the greatest crisis of their lives could be so cruel and resort to such desperate tactics to hide the truth.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2024
  4. Event
    Featuring leading legal experts and experienced clinicians this event will provide an update on current claims processes and how to respond to claims. The conference will look at the patient perspective and explore why patients decide to litigate. There will be an extended session on mediation and ADR. The conference will also update delegates on the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and implications for Clinical Negligence Litigation. The conference will also consider current issues topical in clinical negligence including Maternity Safety and clinical negligence reform. Throughout the day, there will be interactive sessions, small breakout groups, and collaborative exercises, fostering a dynamic learning experience. This conference will enable you to: Network with colleagues with an interest in clinical negligence. Learn from outstanding practice in responding to claims. Reflect on national developments and learning. Understand the patient perspective and why patients decide to litigate. Explore the impact of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework on Clinical Negligence claims and litigation. Improve the way claims are responded to and improve practice in mediation and ADR. Develop your skills in learning from claims to reduce avoidable harm. Understand how you can bring together Complaints, Claims and Patients Safety Investigation. Identify key strategies for supporting staff who are the subject of a claim. Reflect on the progress towards clinical negligence reform and how the system may change. Understand the standards to which services will be judged during the Pandemic. Ensure you are up to date with the latest data with regard to learning from obstetric and maternity claims. Self assess and reflect on your own practice. Supports CPD professional development and acts as revalidation evidence. This course provides 5 Hrs training for CPD subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes. Register Follow on Twitter @HCUK_Clare #ClinicalNegligence hub members receive a 20% discount. Email info@pslhub.org for discount code.
  5. News Article
    Nearly 70 healthcare workers with Long Covid will take their fight to the High Court later to sue the NHS and other employers for compensation. The staff, from England and Wales, believe they first caught Covid at work during the pandemic and say they were not properly protected from the virus. Many of them say they are left with life-changing disabilities and are likely to lose income as a result. The Department of Health said "there are lessons to be learnt" from Covid. The group believe they were not provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) at work, which includes eye protection, gloves, gowns and aprons. In particular, they say they should have had access to high-grade masks, which help block droplets in the air from patient's coughs and sneezes which can contain the Covid virus. But the masks they were given tended to be in line with national guidance. Rachel Hext, who is 36, has always insisted that she caught Covid in her job as a nurse in a small community hospital in Devon. "It's devastating. I live an existence rather than a life. It prevents me doing so much of what I want to do. And it's been four years." Her list of long Covid symptoms includes everything from brain fog and extreme fatigue to nerve damage, and deafness in one ear. Solicitor Kevin Digby, who represents more than 60 members of the group, describes their case as "very important". He says: "It's quite harrowing. These people really have been abandoned, and they are really struggling to fight to get anything. "Now, they can take it to court and hope that they can get some compensation for the injuries that they've suffered." Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 March 2024 Related reading on the hub: Healthcare workers with Long Covid: Group litigation – a blog from David Osborn The pandemic – questions around Government governance: a blog from David Osborn
  6. News Article
    MPs are calling for a new review into the dangers of the drug Primodos, claiming that families who suffered avoidable harm from it have been "sidelined and stonewalled". MPs said the suggestion there is no proven link between the hormone pregnancy test and babies being born with malformations is "factually and morally wrong". A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on hormone pregnancy tests claims evidence was "covered up" and it is possible to "piece together a case that could reveal one of the biggest medical frauds of the 20th century". Around 1.5 million women in Britain were given hormone pregnancy tests between the 1950s and 1970s. They were instructed to take the drug by their GPs as a way of finding out if they were pregnant. But Primodos was withdrawn from the market in the UK in the late 1970s after regulators warned "an association was confirmed" between the drug and birth defects. However, in 2017 an expert working group found there was insufficient evidence of a causal association. But MPs now claim this report is flawed. It's hugely significant because the study was relied upon by the government and manufacturers last year to strike out a claim for compensation by the alleged victims. Read full story Source: Sky News, 1 March 2024
  7. News Article
    Scores of potentially dangerous nurses and midwives could be working in the NHS and putting patients at risk as their cases sit in a growing backlog of misconduct, Hundreds of accusations against staff are being progressed without a full investigation, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) whistleblower has alleged, risking false sanctions or rogue nurses being wrongly cleared if the cases collapse. Overall there are more than 1,000 outstanding cases against healthcare staff for a hearing, including 451 that have not even been allocated a lawyer to vet. In 83 of the more serious allegations, the accused staff have been put under restrictions but could still be working with patients. The NMC whistleblower has claimed the figures expose a hidden backlog of “under-investigated” allegations, with 451 cases against nurses and midwives still needing to be reviewed by lawyers. These could include nurses who are innocent but are awaiting a hearing, with one “stuck in the void” for eight years, the source added. The whistleblower whose allegations prompted The Independent’s investigations has raised repeated concerns to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which regulates the NMC, over the hidden backlog, which was only uncovered through a freedom of information request. However the PSA has not used its powers to trigger a review. The whistleblower warned the public is being left at risk of harm, while nurses and midwives could face miscarriages of justice. “The NMC’s desperation to hide these figures has caused it to make dangerous decisions including creating a surge team of colleagues from across the organisation to review these cases with only minimal training,” the whistleblower said.“It is proposing to mass outsource these reviews to a firm of lawyers who have never undertaken this kind of work before.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 March 2024
  8. News Article
    Whistleblower Dr Chris Day has won the right to appeal when a a Deputy High Court Judge Andrew Burns of the Employment Appeal Tribunal granted permission to appeal the November 2022 decision of the London South Employment Tribunal on six out of ten grounds at a hearing in London. The saga which has now being going on for almost ten years began when Dr Day raised patient safety issues in intensive care unit at Woolwich Hospital in London. The Judge said today this was of the “utmost seriousness” and were linked to two avoidable deaths but their status as reasonable beliefs were contested by the NHS for 4 years using public money. In a series of twists and turns at various tribunals investigating his claims Dr Day has been vilified by the trust not only in court but in a press release sent out by the trust and correspondence with four neighbouring trust chief executives and the head of NHS England, Dr Amanda Pritchard and local MPs. This specific hearing followed a judgement in favour of the trust by employment judge Anne Martin at a hearing which revealed that David Cocke, a director of communications at the trust, who was due to be a witness but never turned up, destroyed 90,000 emails overnight during the hearing. A huge amount of evidence and correspondence that should have been released to Dr Day was suddenly discovered. The new evidence showed that the trust’s chief executive, Ben Travis, had misled the tribunal when he said that a board meeting which discussed Dr Day’s case did not exist and that he had not informed any other chief executive about the case other than the documents that were eventually disclosed to the court. Read full story Source: Westminster Confidential, 26 February 2024
  9. Content Article
    While some patients fully embrace access to test results as soon as they become available, those who may be less informed or receiving results for the first time may find reading results without the guidance of a doctor or oncologist to be fear-inducing and anxiety provoking. The intention of this poster from Tambre Leighn, presented at AACR2023, is to raise awareness and generate conversations about gaps in the process that create barriers and concerns along with potential strategies to improve the overall experience for patients, caregivers and their doctors without interfering with those patients who want to know without delay.
  10. News Article
    The House of Lords is being urged to throw out plans for non-doctor associate roles to be licensed by the same body as doctors. Under a planned new law, physician associates (PAs) will be regulated by the General Medical Council (GMC). The British Medical Association (BMA) believes this could lead to patients confusing the different roles, which it says could have "tragic consequences". There are about 3,200 PAs working in GP surgeries and hospitals in England, with 10,000 more planned in the next decade or so. They were introduced to help doctors with their work - examining and diagnosing patients and discussing treatments with them - although PAs are currently unregulated. Unlike doctors, they do not have to hold a medical degree, but they usually have a degree in a life science and have to undertake a two-year training course. The BMA, the union representing doctors in the UK, believes that regulation by the GMC could lead to a "blurring of the lines" between PAs and doctors. In an open letter to the House of Lords ahead of a debate on Monday, the BMA's chairman Prof Phil Banfield said: "PAs are not doctors. They do not hold a medical degree and are not medically trained, despite misleading statements made by some. "We know that patients are already confused about telling the difference between PAs and doctors, and this legislation will make this problem worse. "Keeping the GMC as the regulator exclusively of doctors would mean we retain the clear distinction between doctors and PAs." Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 February 2024
  11. News Article
    An unprecedented number of women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy, the BBC has been told. Abortion provider MSI says it knows of up to 60 criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before. Some investigations followed natural pregnancy loss, File on 4 found. Pregnancy loss is investigated only if credible evidence suggests a crime, the National Police Chiefs' Council says. File on 4 has spoken to women who say that they have been "traumatised" and left feeling "suicidal" following criminal investigations lasting years. Speaking for the first time, one woman described how she had been placed under investigation after giving birth prematurely, despite maintaining that she had never attempted an abortion. Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director at MSI, which is one of the UK's main abortion providers, believes the "unprecedented" number of women now falling under investigation may be linked to the police's increased awareness of the availability of the "pills by post" scheme - introduced in England and Wales during the Covid-19 lockdown. Scotland also introduced a similar programme. These "telemedicine" schemes, which allow pregnancies up to 10 weeks to be terminated at home, remain in effect. Campaigners are concerned that it is possible for women to knowingly or unknowingly use the pills after this point. MSI's Dr Lord says criminal investigations and prosecutions further "traumatise" women after abortions, and that women deserve "compassion" rather than "punishment". "These women are often vulnerable and in desperate situations - they need help, not investigation and punishment," he says. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 February 2024
  12. Event
    NHS Resolution’s Safety and Learning team, are hosting a virtual forum on perspectives on delivering health in the prison and justice system. The purpose is to raise awareness of the cost and scale of harm, discuss the realities, best practice, challenges and recommendations around collaborating to support healthcare delivery in the justice system. The format is interactive, with presentations followed by questions and panel discussion. Event programme: Learning from prison claims – NHS Resolution The realities of delivering healthcare in prison – Practice Plus Group The medico-legal aspect of prison health claims – Bevan Brittan Q&A panel discussion Contributors: Natalie Miller – Deputy Regional Manager for West Midland Prisons (Practice Plus Group) Ruth Kavanagh – Clinical Quality and Patient Safety Lead (NHS England) Michelle Hodgkinson – Lead Commissioner (NHS England) Jo Easterbrook – Partner (Bevan Brittan) Julie Charlton – Partner (Bevan Brittan) Samantha Thomas – National Safety and Learning Lead for General Practice (NHS Resolution) Dr Anwar Khan – Senior Clinical Advisor for General Practice (NHS Resolution) Register
  13. Content Article
    In December 2022, a newly formed group called 'Long Covid Doctors for Action' (LCD4A) conducted a survey to establish the impact of Long Covid on doctors. When the British Medical Association published the results of the survey, the findings were both astonishing and saddening in equal measure.[1] The LCD4A have now decided that enough is enough and that it is now time to stand up and take positive action. They have initiated a group litigation against those who failed to exercise the ‘duty of care’ that they owed to healthcare workers across the UK during the pandemic.  In this blog, I summarise how and why I feel our healthcare workers have been let down by our government and why, if you are one of these healthcare workers whose life has been effected by Long Covid, I urge you to join the group litigation initiative.
  14. News Article
    A Mississippi prison denied medical treatment to an incarcerated woman with breast cancer, allowing her condition to go undiagnosed for years until it spread to other parts of her body and became terminal, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday. Susie Balfour, 62, alleges that Mississippi department of corrections (MDOC) medical officials were aware she might have cancer as early as May 2018, but did not conduct a biopsy until November 2021, one month before she was released from prison. It was not until January 2022, after she left an MDOC facility, that a University of Mississippi Medical Center doctor diagnosed her with stage four breast cancer, according to her federal complaint. Her lawsuit and medical records paint a picture of a prison healthcare system that deliberately delayed life-saving healthcare and for years repeatedly failed to conduct follow-up appointments that the MDOC’s contracted clinicians recommended. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 February 2024
  15. Content Article
    The recent Hughes Report outlined the options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh  In this blog, AvMa's Chief Executive, Paul Whiteing, discusses the trade-off of redress schemes.
  16. Content Article
    The use of AI in medical devices, patient screening and other areas of healthcare is increasing. This Medscape article looks at some of the risks associated with the use of AI in healthcare. It outlines the difficulties regulators face in monitoring adaptive systems, the inbuilt bias that can exist in algorithms and cybersecurity and liability issues.
  17. Content Article
    The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) awarded researchers from The Open University (OU), Manchester Metropolitan University, the Universities of Oxford, Glasgow and Edinburgh more than £141,000 to expand their world-first study of witnesses’ experience of giving evidence during health and social care workers’ professional conduct hearings. The project, Witness to harm, holding to account: Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings, mainly focuses on cases where there are allegations of harm. This focus should help regulators and employers identify potential improvements to support witnesses whose role in giving evidence is crucial to a fair hearing.
  18. Content Article
    With two notable exceptions, the common law does not recognise one person as having any legally compensable interest in the physical well-being of another. The law compensates the victim but not others who suffer harm as a result of the victim’s injuries or death, however severely impacted and whether the harm is psychological, physical or financial. The exceptions are found in the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 and in claims by secondary victims. It was this latter category that came to be examined in the much anticipated judgment of the Supreme Court in the conjoined appeals of Paul and another (Appellants) v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (Respondent), Polmear and another (Appellants) v Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (Respondent) and Purchase (Appellant) v Ahmed (Respondent). This article from Bevan Brittan, explores this in greater depth.
  19. News Article
    Legal costs in Irish medical negligence cases are among the highest in the world, according to a report that says the slow pace of legal actions here is damaging patients and doctors’ mental wellbeing. The average cost of a legal claim for medical negligence in Ireland is almost three times higher than in the UK, and cases take over 50 per cent longer to resolve, the industry report says. Patients and doctors in Ireland are dragged through what can be a brutal process, for longer than necessary, with patients having to wait longer to receive compensation, the report by the Medical Protection Society (MPS) asserts. In the report, the society, which provides indemnity cover for 16,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals in Ireland, compared the length and cost of legal actions here with other jurisdictions in which it operates. A medical negligence claim in Ireland takes 1,462 days on average (four years), 14% longer than in South Africa and 56% longer than in Hong Kong, the UK or Singapore, it found. Two hundred doctors in Ireland were interviewed for the report: 88% said they were worried about the length of time the litigation process was taking and 91% were worried about their mental wellbeing while it was ongoing. Some said they needed professional help, experienced suicidal thoughts, or quit medicine as a result of the claim. “It was horrendous. I had to leave medicine after it,” says one doctor involved in a claim who is quoted in the report. “I developed severe anxiety during the course of the claim and PTSD. I lost my career in medicine and I am devastated about that. I knew I could never go through the same again.” Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 31 January 2024
  20. Event
    until
    Kennedys' healthcare team are delighted to invite you to the second session of our annual healthcare seminar programme 2024, which will be held both in-person and virtually on Wednesday 28 February. Guest speaker: John Mead, Technical Claims Director, NHS Resolution John Mead studied at London University and then joined the insurance industry, where he dealt with a wide range of claims against local authorities, some of which reached the Court of Appeal and House of Lords. He moved to NHS Resolution in 1999 and has led the Technical Claims Unit since its creation in 2000, in which he is responsible for overseeing large, complex and potentially repercussive claims against NHS bodies and other scheme members. John is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and an accredited mediator. He is an editor for the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, and has contributed to a number of books, most recently Lessons from Medico-Legal Cases in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2022). This session will be chaired by Kennedys' Partner and Global Head of Healthcare Christopher Malla. Register
  21. Content Article
    Hundreds of doctors - led by campaign group Long Covid Doctors for Action - are planning to sue the NHS over claims that inadequate PPE provision has left them with Long Covid. One of those, Dr Nathalie MacDermott, joins Women's Health host Emma Barnett to discuss it. Listen from 2:40
  22. News Article
    A group of doctors with Long Covid are preparing to launch a class action for compensation after contracting SARS-CoV-2 at work. The campaign and advocacy group Long Covid Doctors for Action (LCD4A) has engaged the law firm Bond Turner to bring claims for any physical injuries and financial losses sustained by frontline workers who were not properly protected at work. On 25 January Bond Turner, which specialises in negligence cases, complex litigation, and group actions, launched a call to action inviting doctors and other healthcare workers in England and Wales to make contact if they believe that they contracted covid-19 as a result of occupational exposure.1 Sara Stanger, the firm’s director and head of clinical negligence and serious injury claims, said that the ultimate aim was to achieve “legal accountability and justice for those injured.” She told The BMJ, “I’ve spoken to hundreds of doctors with long covid, and many of them have had their lives derailed. Some have lost their jobs and their homes; they are in financial ruin. Their illnesses have had far reaching consequences in all areas of their lives.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 25 January 2024 Nurses, midwives, and any other healthcare workers who are suffering with Long Covid and which they believe they contracted through their work and who wish to join the action should visit the Bond Turner website here: https://www.bondturner.com/services/covid-group-claim/. Although this action has been initiated by doctors in the first instance, it is not limited to doctors. Further reading on the hub: Questions around Government governance My experience of suspected 'Long COVID' How will NHS staff with Long Covid be supported?
  23. News Article
    The mother of an 11-year-old Aberdeenshire girl with Long Covid has launched a legal action against their health board, in what lawyers claim is the first case of its kind in Scotland. Helen Goss, from Westhill, is seeking damages from NHS Grampian on behalf of her daughter, Anna Hendy. The action claims the health board is responsible for "multiple failings" in Anna's treatment and care. The claim alleges failings were avoidable, that they caused Anna "injury and damage", and led to her condition worsening. Anna became unwell after contracting Covid in 2020. The action alleges a number of failings by the health board. These include claims that requests for Anna to be referred to the specialist paediatric services of immunology and neurology were refused. It also claims no further help was offered after Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). And it says these failings "could have been avoided had NHS Grampian followed contemporary guidance on diagnosis and treatment". Read full story Source: BBC, 19 January 2024
  24. News Article
    Mylissa Farmer’s pregnancy was doomed. But no one would help her end it. Over the course of a few days in August 2022, Farmer visited two hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, where doctors agreed that because the 41-year-old’s water had broken just 18 weeks into her pregnancy, there was no chance that she would give birth to a healthy baby. Continuing the pregnancy could risk Farmer’s health and life – yet the doctors could not act. Weeks earlier, the US supreme court had overturned Roe v Wade and abolished the national right to abortion. It was, legal counsel at one hospital determined, “too risky in this heated political environment to intervene”, according to legal filings. In immense pain and anguish, Farmer ultimately traveled several hours to Illinois, where abortion is legal. There, doctors were able to end her pregnancy. Farmer’s account is detailed in a legal complaint she filed against the hospitals, arguing that they broke a federal law that requires hospitals to treat patients in medical emergencies. In a first-of-its-kind investigation, the US government sided with Farmer and declared that the two hospitals had broken the law. The future of the government’s ability to invoke that law to protect women seeking emergency abortions is now in question. The law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (Emtala), is at the heart of the US supreme court’s latest blockbuster abortion case, which comes out of Idaho. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2024
  25. Content Article
    The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 came into force on 2 July 1999. The Act protects workers who disclose information about malpractice at their workplace, or former workplace, provided certain conditions are met. The conditions concern the nature of the information disclosed and the person to whom it is disclosed. If these conditions are met, the Act protects the worker from suffering detriment or dismissal due to having made the disclosure. If the conditions are not met a disclosure may constitute a breach of the worker’s duty of confidence to his employer. This legal framework has received some criticism in recent years for failing to protect some whistleblowers and there have been a number of calls for reform. This research briefing produced by the House of Commons Library, titled Whistleblowing and gagging clauses, includes: Summary Background The duty of confidentiality The legal framework Evolution of the law Proposals for reform of whistleblowing law Whistleblowing in the NHS Gagging clauses Support and advice.  
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