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.
Back to top