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.
C Diff Compensation
Friday, 04 September 2009 00:00 | 
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Clostridium Difficile is a spore forming bacterium which presents as one of the normal bacteria in the gut of up to 3% of healthy adults. It can cause illness when certain antibiotics disturb the balance of normal bacteria.
C Diff can cause diarrhoea of varying severity and/ or severe inflammation of the bowel.
In small number of cases, patients have died from complicating factors arising from this infection.
If a case of C Diff is suspected the treating hospital should be considering the following points:
Suspect case with unexplained diarrhoea
Isolate
Gloves and Aprons
Hand Washing with soap and water
Test immediately
If you are reading this as a family member quote SIGHT to the hospital explaining that you are concerned that your family member may have C Diff.
If you can prove that the treating hospital have failed to follow the correct infection policies which has then resulted in the contraction of C Diff, please contact us as there maybe a claim for compensation.
Rachel Donovan, Associate solicitor at John Pickering and Partners knows that the hospitals are concerned about Infection prevention and control.
We know that a Liverpool Hospital has recently had more cases of C Diff in one week than they normally have in one month, and due to the high number of cases a special ward has been opened for C Diff patients and more specialist staff are being recruited.
We know that staff MUST ensure that:
- They communicate effectively when a patient has diarrhoea, this includes telling the nurse in charge AND documenting in the patients notes.
We know this is not always being done and they must ensure that:
- They must comply with SIGHT
Please note failure to do this by the staff could involve disciplinary action against individuals.
If more information in required in relation to the above then please do not hesitate to contact:
Further information:
Rachel Donovan
John Pickering and Partners LLP
19 Castle Street
Liverpool
L2 4SX
E-mail: don@johnpickering.co.uk
Website: www.johnpickering.co.uk
FREEPHONE: 0800 854201
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.