Accident and Emergency
This is often the first point of contact a patient will have with the NHS due to an illness or after an injury. The staff who practise in emergency medicine have skills in prevention, diagnosis and management.
Case reports
T -v- Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Trust
The Claimant was taken to the Accident & Emergency Department at Calderdale Royal Infirmary after being knocked down by a car
and was diagnosed as having an unstable short spiral fracture of the right femur. Her leg was placed in a splint which had to be re-applied because it was the wrong size. She was admitted to the children’s ward of the hospital. She remained in hospital but there was a failure to monitor the healing process of her leg in the splint, to the extent that poor union of the femur was achieved and her leg was bent when the bone was healed and had a boney protruberance. The bowing of the leg also entailed shortening of the femur and consequently the leg itself.
The case settled for £28,000.00 which included damages for care provided to the Claimant by her parents, the cost of some reconstructive surgery on her scarring and damages for her psychological distress, as well as for the leg injuries overall and for the otherwise would have been unnecessary.
Independent Review on Liverpool Women’s NHS Trust Foundation
Wednesday, 14 April 2010 00:00 | 
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The findings of an independent review into Liverpool Women’s NHS Trust Foundation were released on the 19th March 2010. The review was conducted by Verita who are an independent consultancy firm which specialises in investigations, reviews, and inquiries in public sector bodies.
The review was commissioned by the Trust to review their clinical and managerial systems and as part of its response to a serious incident which occurred in the urogynaecological service.
The report: An independent review of governance at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust can be downloaded from www.lwh.me.uk
The serious incident related to a urogynaelogical consultant, George Rowland who was employed by the Trust and worked at Aintree Centre for Women’s Health.
Dr Rowland was suspended by the Trust in 2008 following concerns about his judgement in selecting patients for surgery, the number of patients suffering complications after receiving treatment from him and also his waiting lists. However, the report has found that there were concerns raised about Dr Rowland as far back as 2004, but there was no action taken.
As a result of these concerns Dr Rowland has been issued with conditions of practice by the GMC, pending further investigations into his fitness to practice.
In April 2009, the Trust re-examined the case notes of patients of a number of women who were treated by George Rowland. The Trust worked in partnership with the GP’s, Primary Care Trusts and they contacted a number of patients.
The Trust has set up a telephone line to support patients concerned over this incident. Any patients who have concerns relating to this incident can call the Trust patient information telephone line Monday-Friday on 0151 702 4300.
The Report criticises the Trust stating that “there are gaps in the governance arrangements which mean that the trust cannot pick up weak signals about areas of potential risk...the strategy for gynaecology service does not support the delivery of a consistent high level of service.” The report concluded that “the gaps and inconsistencies found in the way governance arrangement operate day to day may lead to the trust to conclude that it should look closely at this in some or all of its services”.
The report has made a number of recommendations to the Trust to improve the service it offers and to ensure that incidents such as those involving Dr Rowland are prevented or detected at an earlier stage.
Many of the women treated by Dr Rowland and are suffering as a result of his treatment may be entitled to bring clinical negligence claims.
If you were treated by Dr Rowland and are concerned about ongoing problems please contact:
Rachel Donovan, Solicitor
John Pickering and Partners LLP
19 Castle Street
Liverpool
L2 4SX
Freephone: 0808 144 0958
Fax: 0151 258 1262
E-mail: don@johnpickering.co.uk
Website: www.johnpickering.co.uk
Notes
John Pickering and Partners LLP
About Us
Our clients are people who have suffered injury as a result of a medical accident in the UK. We are clinical and medical negligence solicitors. We handle negligence claims against hospitals, GP’s and other medical practitioners for clients across the UK.
We try to obtain maximum amounts of compensation.
We are committed to providing public funding (previously known as Legal Aid) and have a franchise from the Community Legal Services Commission. This means that they have looked at the firm carefully and approved of the way we work. They consider that we are medical negligence claims specialists. They trust us to handle medical accident claims properly.
If you are not eligible for public funding, we can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement, also known as a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with insurance. We shall check the best method of funding your claim.
All 3 of our offices (Liverpool, Manchester and Halifax) are accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
Claire Horton is an experienced clinical negligence solicitor who is based in our Manchester office. She continues to practice as an independent funding ajudicator for the Legal Services Commission and acts on a pro-bono basis for the AvMA helpline.
For further advice on medical negligence in Liverpool please also contact Rachel Donovan and for Halifax contact Ruth Davies, who are both experienced in the field of clinical negligence.
We provide free initial advice to people seeking information about a potential clinical negligence claim.
If you need advice about a clinical negligence claim, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.