10 Year Anniversary

YOUNG MAN DIES IN HOSPITAL

We acted for a Mr Anthony McGinn who received a telephone call from the Police in the early hours of the 8 May 2004. He was informed that his son, Graeme, had been involved in a RTA and had been taken to Great Western Hospital in Swindon. He was told that Graeme was fine but that he had hurt his arm.

Mr McGinn arrived at the hospital at approximately 1.20am. He found Graeme to be “loud, cocky and aggressive” which he felt was due to him having a drink earlier. However, he has since learnt that these were probably the first signs that he had in fact sustained internal injuries following his accident. At this point, Graeme had only been treated by the hospital for his arm injury. He was told that he had chipped a bone in his elbow but would not require any surgery.

Graeme continued to complain of pain in his chest and abdomen. He did not receive any treatment for this discomfort. As his blood pressure was dropping he was taken to the resuscitation room. Graeme became increasingly aggressive, confused and violent. He did not receive any attention other than blood pressure monitoring and fluid provision via a drip.

His condition continued to deteriorate. Furthermore, no action was undertaken by the hospital to establish if he had sustained internal injuries. Mr McGinn was later informed that a Surgeon was being called to perform an operation to establish if Graeme had internal injuries. After the Surgeon arrived, it was decided that the surgery would take place in the resuscitation room as his condition could not be stabilised. At around 5.00am on the 8 May 2004, he was informed that Graeme had suffered internal bleeding and he was receiving heart massage after suffering a cardiac arrest. At around 6.00am he was told that his son had died.

Graeme was only 16 when he died. He was Mr & Mrs McGinn’s only son. They made a formal complaint about Graeme’s care at the hospital on the 19 May 2004. They were unhappy with the Hospital Trust’s answer to his complaint and the handling of the complaint generally and they contacted the Healthcare Commission on or about the 15 August 2004. In their report dated the 11 August 2006, they were very critical of the hospital not only in how Graeme had been treated following his road accident but also on how they had dealt with Mr & Mrs McGinn’s complaint. Following a letter from our firm, the Hospital Trust accepted liability in full for what had happened to Graeme.

This is a very sad case. With proper care, Graeme’s death could have been avoided. The tragedy is compounded, however, by the very low level of compensation which was payable to Mr & Mrs McGinn as Graeme’s next of kin. It is not appreciated amongst the general public that when a death occurs due to someone else’s negligence that unless the next of kin were dependent on the deceased financially or for “services” at the time of his or her death and had a reasonable expectation of being so into the future, the damages payable is normally limited to a Bereavement award (a derisory £10,000.00) and any funeral expenses and perhaps something for the deceased’s pre-death suffering. The Bereavement award is only payable if the deceased is either your spouse or your child provided your child is under 18.

To view TV coverage of Graeme McGinn's case please click on this link

100,000 UNHAPPY PATIENTS EVERY YEAR

More than 1 in 5 complaints referred to the Healthcare Commission involves serious concerns about patient safety in the NHS according to their report printed in February 2007.

We would remind our readers that when a complaint is made to a hospital, the NHS Trust which runs that particular hospital carries out its own investigation and responds to the complaint made by the patient. This process is known as Local Resolution. If the patient is not satisfied with the response, the matter can then be referred to the Healthcare Commission for Independent Review.

According to the report, about 100,000 complaints are made against the Health Service every year and 8,000 are sent to the Healthcare Commission for them to review. The number of complaints sent have trebled since the health watchdog took on this role back in 2004.

In the first report of its kind, the Healthcare Commission said that 22% of complaints it handled over 2 years were about safety, such as accidents, falls or children being given the wrong injections. Others concerned the poor care of dying relatives, bereaved families being treated in an abrasive or unsympathetic manner and patients being discharged at inappropriate times of the day. Poor quality meals, inadequate nursing care and dirty wards are also high on the list of complaints.

The Healthcare Commission said that many concerns focus on the “basic elements of healthcare”. It is now publishing a list of the worst 10 NHS Trusts for dealing with complaints that should have been resolved at a local level.

Of the cases handled between July 2004 and July 2006, about 70% of those it could review, they found in favour of the complainant. Of the 500 to 800 complaints it handles each month, about a 1/3 are sent back to the NHS Trusts for further action.

The bugs they can’t beat

Deadly hospital superbugs killed a record 5,400 people during 2004-05, according to figures recently released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

And now as well as MRSA there’s an even more lethal infection stalking the wards. Deaths involving clostridium difficile rose 60% - up from 2,247 to 3,807 – while deaths from MRSA climbed 39% from 1,168 to 1,629. In other words, clostridium difficile (commonly known as C diff) was a cause of mortality on two in every 500 death certificates and MRSA a cause of death on one in every 500.

The ONS figures are worrying enough, but we are concerned that the real statistics could be even higher because of under-reporting on death certificates. Nor do they take account of victims who survive such as the actress Leslie Ash, who announced last month that she is suing the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London for £1m compensation after being struck down by a superbug during treatment there. Three years on, she is unable to walk unaided.

C diff is an organism found in the bowel of a small percentage of the population. Under certain conditions, such as during the use of some antibiotics, the organism grows unchecked and this can cause inflammation of the bowel and diarrhoea. It can, in some cases, lead to death. The organism is regularly treated with special antibiotics. It can spread from patient to patient through poor hygiene.

MRSA is a strain of bacteria that is resistant to common antibiotics. It too can spread through poor hygiene. It can be treated with special antibiotics.

Out of the bed and into the A & E

Did you know …………………..?
On the 6 April 2007 the Animal Welfare Act comes into force in England (and by the end of March in Wales).

The new law means that owners will have a legal responsibility to meet the welfare needs of their pets. Pets welfare needs include:-

• a proper diet including water
• somewhere suitable to live
• any need to be housed with, or apart from, other animals
• allowing animals to express normal behaviour
• protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease

S J Edney welcomes any change in the law which improves animal welfare but we feel that the Government should also have included compulsory pet insurance which would have paid compensation to victims who have suffered injuries as a consequence of a dog or other animal attack. All pets are unpredictable especially dogs and sometimes they will turn on a person with devastating consequences.

Did you also know……………….?

According to the Motor Insurers Bureau and Association of British Insurers:-

• there are 2m uninsured drivers on the road
• 500m worth of damage was caused by uninsured drivers in 2006
• 50,000 uninsured vehicles were seized in 2006; 20,000 were then crushed
• there is a ten times likelihood that an uninsured driver will have a drink drive conviction compared to an insured driver

S J Edney are not surprised by these alarming figures. We act for many road accident victims and in recent years we have found that the number of uninsured, untaxed and often unlicensed drivers has risen significantly. More than 180 people were killed by uninsured drivers last year and another 360 people seriously injured. The new powers given to the Police in 2005 to check number plates against an insurance database and seize any vehicles without a valid policy are welcomed. This now increases the odds of uninsured drivers being caught.

The NHS seeks to claim back up to £150m a year from insurers
The NHS will now be able to claim back some of their costs which currently goes towards treating injured people.

The Government has introduced a scheme that will allow the NHS to recover the cost of both hospital treatment and ambulance care from insurance companies if a claimant is successful with their personal injury claim.

The recoverable figures proposed are as follows:-

• “without admission” treatment at hospital will be subject to a flat rate charge of £505.00
• “with admission” treatment will be charged at a daily rate of £620.00 up to a capped amount of £37,100.00 which roughly equates to 60 days treatment
• each NHS ambulance journey will be charged at a standard rate of £159.00

The above figures will be updated annually at the 1 April each year to take into account inflation.

Insurance companies have been preparing for the scheme for well over a year but the total cost to them will remain unknown until the scheme is fully operational.

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This newsletter was produced by S J Edney, solicitors at:
Alexander House, 19 Fleming Way, Swindon who have consulting rooms at :
Kensington House, 33 Imperial Square, Cheltenham and
Clarendon House, 52 Cornmarket Street, Oxford
e-mail office@sjedney.co.uk Telephone 01793 600721