make a claim on NHS for their medical negligence

rajakumar

We had our baby 2 weeks back during the labour they put in a swab to stop the blood and they apply the stiches and the swap should be removed after the stiches are done. They didn't remove it and my wife had a severe pain the last 2 weeks. yesterday she was not able to bear the pain and we went to emergency and they removed the swab and now she is feeling comfortable. This all happened due to the negligence of the doctor and the mid-wifes.
I'm planning to sue the doctor for his medical negligence. Has anyone made a claim to NHS or the know procedure how to make a claim against NHS ? any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Astaroth

It is a claim against the NHS not on it.

Have a look at your home insurance policy to see if you have taken the legal expenses policy with it. If you have they will provide both free advice on the matter and will provide a solicitor to pursue the case if they feel you have reasonable chance of success.

For your sake I hope this thread doesnt deteriorate into a discussion on the ethics of suing the NHS and if you will be "happy" that any compensation you may receive will stop other people from being able to receive treatement

Rjohnmatt

Astaroth wrote:

For your sake I hope this thread doesnt deteriorate into a discussion on the ethics of suing the NHS and if you will be "happy" that any compensation you may receive will stop other people from being able to receive treatement

Good point there.
Its often easy to overlook the fact that mistakes can be made in any field,more so in high stress occupations and probably drs,paramedics,firefighters and policemen come under this category.

All i would say is think carefully before you go ahead and decide to sue and to consider everything.Getting more money is not all about what life is all about,but if you feel that makes you feel better,then by all means go for it!

Becles

I would make an official complaint to the hospital and it will be investigated.

I did that when I was accidentaly given penicillin by the out of hours GP service, even though he'd wrote on my notes that I was allergic to penicillin! I ended up back in A&E in an ambulance after going into anaphylactic shock.

I wrote an official complaint, and the matter was investigated. I was told the out of hours GP staff were all going to be given refresher training on drug allergies, and all future prescriptions would be double checked with another staff member. I was happy with that, as hopefully it will prevent this happening again to someone else.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

OP - consult the hospital's PALS service, they will give you all the information you need. If you are a taxpayer you will be sueing yourself as the NHS is funded out of tax.

rajakumar

Thanks for your response.

I came to this point as the case was serious. My wife was suffered alot in the lost 19 days. I have taken off from my work and helping my wife. The errors were serious and there was some stage she was losing hope that she will recover back.

I don't have any intention to get a huge money from the NHS. As you said it only our money. When the issue is raised atleast they will take some action and it will prevent others not to undergo the same trouble we had.

Bossyboots

rajakumar wrote:

Thanks for your response.

I came to this point as the case was serious. My wife was suffered alot in the lost 19 days. I have taken off from my work and helping my wife. The errors were serious and there was some stage she was losing hope that she will recover back.

I don't have any intention to get a huge money from the NHS. As you said it only our money. When the issue is raised atleast they will take some action and it will prevent others not to undergo the same trouble we had.

No it won't. Mistakes will always happen. No doubt they have procedures in place to ensure swabs aren't mislaid. They didn't work this time. Your wife may have had pain for two weeks anyway. I certainly did first time round because a difficult delivery caused me severe bruising.

It is your wife who needs to take action if you choose to go down that road as she was the patient and the mistake was made during her procedure.

Personally I would just be happy that I had my healthy baby and get on with my life.

Pennywise

Bossyboots wrote:

Personally I would just be happy that I had my healthy baby and get on with my life.

Yes, but then the shoddy service continues - the next person who receives negligent treatment may not be as lucky and may suffer irrevocable harm. When mistakes are made, they need to be taken seriously - I'm not in favour of claiming silly amounts of compensation, but I certainly have no problem with making formal complaints when anyone makes a mistake. Unfortunately, the NHS have a bad reputation for trying to bury mistakes rather than learn from them. We have had to make serious negligence claims against our local NHS trust twice now - both times, their mistakes nearly killed close relatives - these were not particularly unusual or problem cases - the mistakes made were very simple errors that should never have been made, but the NHS staff made them worse by not realising mistakes had been made and continuing to make further mistakes. In neither case did we ask for compensation - the whole point was to get them to get their act together for the next poor sods they deal with.

Graham_Devon

I work in the NHS. There are people sueing it left right and centre because there is money to be made.

Unfortunately is IS a case of the money you take by sueing only makes the services worse. We all moan about the NHS being in debt, and then there are people sueing it.

I personally think sueing the NHS is simply selfish and an easy route to a bit of money.

Im the health and safety representative for where I work. If you realised how much money we have to spend to try our very best to combat the claim in the first place you may realise where YOUR tax money is actually going. Instead of treating people with the money, were having to spend it elsewhere, trying our hardest to make it so that no one can sue us.

You'll probably all moan when there are no toys in GP surgeries anymore to keep your kids occupied. They will be dissapearing. Why? Because parents have sued because a child has hurt themselves on a toy. One child practically ate a cuddly toy, started choking and had to go to hospital. The mother sued the surgery for neglegance. Now, who was at fault here? The mother taking no notice of what her kid was doing or the surgery?

We've now had to remove cuddly tpys and ANYTHING that has more than one part, i.e. a ball is ok, it can't come apart. A rattle isnt ok, it can come apart and the child can swallow it.

We had to remove all of our nice wooden flooring which was anti slip stuff so that someone couldnt slip, we replaced it with carpet. Someone tripped on the carpet and nearly got to taking us to court before we settled personally with the women, something which wasnt our fault, but it's easy to sue for.

Sueing the NHS DOES effect other people. You may gain yourself, but there IS less money for other services then.

I'm spending at least half a week on this at the moment, you guys are providing my wages to do this. I never used to do this, I used to do more important things. However, this is now more important because of the sueing culture. Think about it. Thats 1 person spending half a week on this in a few surgeries. How many other people are like me and have had a job created which in all reality wastes NHS money when you think it could be spent on things which will actually improve patient health.

Sorry for the rant, but it just does my head in! Mistakes happen, were all human. If the NHS wasnt there for you in the first place where would you have been?

Dora_the_Explorer_5

1 in 10 patients will suffer an untoward incident. If 1 in 10 patients sue the NHS will cease to exist.
By all means, everyone should bring untoward incidents to the attention of a Trust, in order that things can be improved and loopholes blocked.
Like any other organisation, the NHS is not perfect. Patients can help it improve or destroy it - everyone has a choice.

Graham_Devon

We'll never stop it, not unless the law changes.

For instance, if there is a step, you can do your best to highlight that step. Say you put 2 signs up saying 'mind the step' That sign means NOTHING in law, even if you can prove that the sign was there. Similarly it means that when you go into a shop and they have put up those hazard boards showing that the floor is wet, it means absolutely nothing, regardless of whether the shop did everything to warn you.

We recently put up a sign to say mind the sign! Thats how bad it's getting. Our sign was apprently too high, so we had to lower the sign. Then some tall person bumped his head on it! Can't win!

So now we look real stupid with 'mind the sign' and the sign saying 'mind the slope'.

We were actually looking at making all patients stand and wait outside the surgery so that we can't be sued for everything we do, then a doctor will come down with a pushcahir and wheel you in to the surgery and when your done, wheel you back out. hehe.