70 children died after lapses in medical care

22 | 06 | 2009

REPORT FINDS 70 CHILDREN DIED AFTER LAPSES IN MEDICAL CARE

Source: Thursday 18 June 2009 – The Independent

Children and the elderly are amongst our most vulnerable in society.  They rely on others to care for and protect them .Yet children aged up to 4 and adults over 85 have the highest number of medication errors of any age group says a review of the safety of NHS care involving incidents reported to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).    Are we doing enough to protect the most vulnerable in society?

Amputating the wrong leg has obvious and catastrophic consequences.   Placing a decimal point in the wrong place resulting in a child receiving ten times the intended dose of medication is less obvious but can be equally catastrophic. 

We are used to seeing head lines reporting multi million pound compensation payments to clinical negligence victims.  The most a victim can claim for pain and suffering in a maximum severity case is just under £260,000.00.  Financial losses, such as the cost of care, adapted accommodation and loss of earnings make up the balance of the compensation.

In cases involving the death of a child or an elderly person there is often little by way of financial losses which leaves only a bereavement damages claim, which is fixed by law at £11,800 ( eleven thousand eight hundred pounds ) Hence the cynical ‘ it is cheaper to kill than to maim’. 

Public Funding (previously Legal Aid) is generally only available to those who can demonstrate that compensation is likely to be 4 times the cost of the claim.   ‘It is east to imagine the distress of a parent have losing a baby or a wife losing a husband to clinical negligence when told for that life they are entitled to less than £12,000’ said Andrew Davies of Hugh James solicitors  Imagine how this distress is compounded when they learn that the negligent hospital or doctor will not admit responsibility and that consequently the Legal Services Commission will not provide public funding because their case is  not economically viable.    Few such cases hit the headlines, yet the death of a loved one can cause as much devastation to a family as amputating the wrong leg. ‘ Andrew, who specialises in clinical negligence cases and has represented many Bereaved families urged the NHS to stop knocking the ‘system’ and start admitting their mistakes

None of us want to discourage doctors from providing treatment or medication for fear of being sued, however it is a myth to suggest that there is a compensation culture in this country.  To escape a claim for negligence a doctor need only demonstrate that he acted in a reasonable or standard manner.  Our legal system does not allow doctors to be sued for compensation simply because they fall short of the “gold” standard.  In order to succeed it is for the Claimant to prove that the hospital or doctor concerned behaved in a way in which no other reasonable hospital or doctor would have behaved.  The legal test for proving clinical negligence is not a soft test.

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