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.
Campaign for Robbie's Law Continues
Monday, 17 May 2010 14:22 | 
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The Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations came into force on the 1st April 2010.
These Regulations create a statutory duty for healthcare providers to report incidents which harm patients to the national reporting system of the NPSA (National Patient Safety Agency). The NPSA system is anonymised and does not allow for investigation of the incident or informing the patient or the patient’s next of kin. Any hospital which fails to send an anonymised report form to NPSA about an incident which had seriously harmed a patient could face closure or be heavily fined.
The Charitable organisation AVMA (Action Against Medical Accidents), which promotes issues relating to patient safety and supports people affected by medical accidents are arguing these Regulations do not go far enough. AVMA have been campaigning for many years for the introduction of a legal duty of candour. A duty of candour, if introduced would make it a legal requirement for healthcare professionals to be honest and open with patients when accidents occur.
Robbie Powell died in 1990 aged 10 years, Robbie died from a medical error, which was the subject of an alleged cover up. The circumstances surrounding Robbie’s death have been pivotal in the campaign for the introduction of the Duty of Candour, which has become known as ‘Robbie’s Law’.
To show your support to the campaign for ‘Robbie’s Law’ please follow this link to sign a petition and for more information on AVMA and their campaign to introduce ‘Robbie’s Law’ please click here
A National Audit Report in 2005 (A Safer Place for Patients) revealed that only 24% of NHS Trusts routinely informed patients of a patient safety incident and worryingly 6% admitted to never informing patients.
Through the work that we do as clinical negligence solicitors, we have met many client’s who have been left wondering what went wrong after receiving medical treatment. The failure of medical professionals to explain complications and mistakes that have occurred leave many patients feeling worried, anxious and frustrated. To introduce Robbie’s Law (Duty of Candour) would mean that health professionals would be obliged to inform patients about incidents that have happened during their medical treatment. We feel ‘Robbie’s Law’ would help patients to cope better with what has happened to them.
If you have been undergoing medical treatment and you are concerned about what has happened to you please contact the Clinical Negligence Team at John Pickering and Partners LLP, please click here for details of our solicitors who are based in Liverpool, Manchester and Halifax.
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.