Advice please. Reluctant Medical Negligence claim

Leigh Day are good, give them.a ring for advice if you choose to go ahead

petra

My friend did it after the birth of her disabled daughter.
After 6 years of fighting she gave up.
Believe me, the hospital will fight you tooth and nail.

One of my friends had a nephew damaged during delivery. It took twelve years to reach a settlement, though they had been forced to admit liability. His severe disability meant that he had to have a high enough settlement to take care of him for the rest of his life and the hospital fought it to the end.

My daughter had a severe pelvic infection and spent a week in hospital locally before being discharged. The next morning she was so ill and in such pain that she could hardly move. We took her to a different A&E where she was found to have sepsis and was admitted as an emergency patient. The doctors in the second hospital called the first for information and were first told that the notes could not be found and then that "she must have discharged herself" - patently untrue.
The result of this was that she was eventualy unable to have children.
We have a happy outcome as she first became a foster parent and then adopted two siblings.
We were advised that it would take years to receive any sort of compensation settlement and it would be low as, technically, not having children does not actually "cost" the victim anything.

I tried PALS after the very unsatisfactory treatment of my lateDH . I wrote , left messages and emailed asking for a meeting with his consultant. I had no response at all and then gave up as it was making me so sad and angry and I knew that it wouldn’t change anything. My main reason for complaining was to make sure other people didn’t have the same experience but I just didn’t have the energy.

M0nica

You need a solicitor who spcialises is personal injury. You can get a list of specialists from the Law Society or any large local firm of solicitors will have someone who specialises in personal injury work.

It’s not really a personal injury specialist that’s needed, but a medical negligence specialist

BluebellGran

Thank you Wyllow3. I submitted my formal complaint via PALs and having had the formal response after 3 months I, and everyone who has been supporting me, believe I am being ‘fobbed off’.

Some years ago a relative suffered neglect while in hospital, and was extremely ill as a result. Her daughter complained, and eventtually had exactly the sort of letter you described - the 'whitewash'. She was advised by a solicitor that this was the usual response, and that most people, either unwell themselves or trying to care for a sick dependent, give up. She was advised to complain again, more strongly, and this resulted in a far better outcome.

I wrote a long and detailed complaint to PALS at my local hospital after my mothers sudden death , I waited a long time for a response and the whitewash and lies I received back simply left me feeling frustrated and angry,in fact I could barely bring myself to read it all.At no point did they address any of my accusations or examples of poor care,it wasn’t worth the paper it was written and I’m afraid I burnt it thinking “you can’t fight city hall” as the saying went.
My argument was they admitted to giving my mother a strong morphine based medication that she was allergic to ,one which was clearly indicated in her medical notes and even on the cover of her medical notes as a known allergy.

I also wrote to the hospital and the trust managing her care. The trust acknowledged my complaint but the hospital did not. I understand your frustration Tusue.

My mother, not her.

I too have had a life threatening experience at a large NHS teaching hospital.
As soon as I was able I wrote to ask for my ‘treatment’ to be investigated as I didn’t want anyone else to suffer in the same way .
Nothing happened so I copied that letter to PALS
I received one phone call to say they would look into it.
2 years and several phone calls from me I haven’t heard anything. I am paying privately for ongoing treatment as my condition will now be life long . I do not feel confident that the NHS would care for me at all.
I feel battered and bruised by all this and wish that the Trust spent as much time on patient care as they do on their own press and reputation. There never seems to be any accountability when things go so badly wrong.

I don't have any legal advice or knowledge of any sort of health disputes but I have a friend who tried to pursue a similar cause. If you want to continue with this I think you have to be a very strong person as this may drag on for many years and cause an enormous amount of stress for you. Whatever you decide I wish you the very best and hope you get some satisfaction and peace of mind.

I would go down that ‘no win no fee’ route - if you’ve had negligent treatment 👍🏼

Try this site
www.avma.org.uk/help-advice/

As someone else has said it is a long process.

Do you have legal cover with your house/ contents insurance?

I sympathise. I complained about the care my 92 year old father received and am still waiting for a full reply almost 12 months later.

It may interest readers to know that actually, no-one seems to be responsible for the NHS. I wrote to :
-The Health Minister with an alert to the way elderly and dying are being treated but the response was that they don’t run it day to day – go elsewhere. I thought the Health Ministry actually provided the money so really should take an interest in what is going on.
-The Trust – unsatisfactory replies which, despite being signed off by the Chief Executive, were appalling. Not only were they inaccurate and did not answer the points raised (so clearly the background was not actually read by the CE) but the layout was appalling;
-The CQC – they don’t investigate individual cases but will look at safety aspects when they next assess the Trust (Mmmm, this will be one of the CQC visits that don’t actually happen as recently highlighted by the Health Minister);
-NHS England – only investigate issues relating to services they commission, told me to go the local Integrated Care Board.
-The local Integrated Care Board (responsible for commissioning services) – referred it back to the Trust and promised to look at the Trust responses and ensure they were accurate etc. Three months later - I received a reply from the ICB telling me that they don’t have the powers to investigate….. and the Trust would address any outstanding issues!!

Taking me right back to the beginning and I am still waiting.

All were keen to point me to the Health Ombudsman …. I wonder why? A view of the Ombudsman website will provide the answer.

So, you can see why the NHS is in the mess it is – no-one actually runs it or is responsible for it. All these organisations run by people on very canny salaries passing the buck – from the top downover.

Like you, all I want is an acknowledgement that the system as it is fails some of the most vulnerable – even when dying – and an assurance that something will change.

The frustration is very wearing - as I am sure is the whole point of the exercise - sicken people off and hope they go away. I was pleased to see the advice of Wyllow3 in this thread which I will look into.

Many years ago, my late mother's GP prescribed the wrong strength of her epilepsy drugs. Mum didn't notice the change and neither did her local pharmacist so she overdosed for some time until eventually she collapsed and was admitted to hospital, where she had to have all her medication reassessed to treat her ongoing. Thankfully there were no lasting effects.

My brother said she should sue them, but she didn't want to make a fuss despite a couple of weeks in hospital and what could easily have been a tragic outcome. Reading these comments I guess I'm glad she chose not to complain. The stress would probably have killed her if it had gone on for a long time! I seem to remember her reasoning was that complaining would simply cost the NHS money thus taking away resources from others who need them. She always did put others' needs ahead of her own, but then the argument that complaining may prevent it happening again is as strong.

Are you still a member of a trade union by any chance because they would take legal action on your behalf ? Or try PALS as suggested. However, my experience of them is very negative and they tend to side with the health authority.

FAO BluebellGran
If a hospital is involved they should have a complaints procedure. There is also a national health ombudsman who you would have to lodge a complaint with within one year. Following the death of my husband and an inquest, I looked into all this in some detail. The hospital undertook an honest investigation - I had two meetings with them and the report acknowledged the main errors made and apologised for them. It wasn’t anywhere like enough but it was the best I could get. It sounds like no win no fee is definitely not a route you want to go down. In my opinion, having spoken to one or two of them I think quite a few are just sweat shop conveyor belt opportunist legal bods.

I am about to travel down a route to get a misdiagnosis corrected on my records.

Last year I was twice diagnosed with having had TIAs, those small strokes. It has now become abundantly clear that I had nothing of the sort, which I knew from the start, and the correct diagnosis is now clear and I am at last receiving appropriate treatment for it, but because I have had to go privately to get the whole thing sorted out, I am going to have to talk to the hospital about it being noted on my file that they were not strokes.

Having a diagnosis of strokes triples your travel insurance, affects your car insurance and I am taking a lot of pills I to remedy problems I do not have.

Currently I have my hospital notes on order. I am meant to get them in 30 days, but will be lucky if I see them within 2 months.

I am not looking for any compensation, although I would like to have a talk with the young, very clever and very enthusiastic doctor who, when she saw me, was out to prove I had had a stroke rather than work out whether I had had one and ignored any symptoms that contradicted her convictions and misheard and misdescribed symptoms in my notes.

It wasn't done with malice afore thought, she was just carried away by her own enthusiasm for her work and the research project she was working on.

I could quote the case of a doctor who claimed compensation for injuries she received at work. She ended up having to take her NHS trust to court, where they came up with some ludicrous accusations to try to prove her wrong. Luckily the judge was not fooled, but it was a very long and stressful process.

Deedaa

I could quote the case of a doctor who claimed compensation for injuries she received at work. She ended up having to take her NHS trust to court, where they came up with some ludicrous accusations to try to prove her wrong. Luckily the judge was not fooled, but it was a very long and stressful process.

This is usually the situation. People who have been desperately ill, or those who are caring for them, do not have the time or stamina to pursue negligence claims. The thought of even more stress and hours spent arguing your case must be too much.

Thank you all for your advice and kind words of support. What actually happened was that a canulla was fitted into my hand prior to me undergoing a removal of gallstones from my bile duct, with an endoscopy through my throat, stomach and up into the upper bile duct near my liver. For this I needed to be sedated with Fentanyl, which is 40 times the strength of morphine. The canulla was tissued (not into a vein but just into flesh) so I endured the procedure with no sedation and was fully conscious and in horrific pain. The procedure was ended early and I was wheeled into the recovery ward where a paracetamol drip was attached to the same canulla. When my arm and hand swelled up within minutes there was a panic and the nurses realised what had happened. The reply to my formal complaint claims that I am unfortunately a person for whom Fentanyl doesn’t work and that the canulla must have become displaced after the procedure when I was being wheeled the few yards into recovery. Unbelievable.

Check out with the ombudsmans office first
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. This organisation is independent of the NHS. For more information, call their helpline on 0345 015 4033 or visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website.

Not medical negligence but a personal injury claim. Not car related. I used Fentons Solicitors. They also do medical negligence. Yes it does drag on with a lot of too-ing and fro-ing but you can treat it as a game. It took over a year but I got £33.000.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

NotSpaghetti

I would tell them you want xyz/info and are giving them a chance to explain befote you take it to the health ombudsman.

I would give them, say, 14 days and then make a formal complaint to the ombudsman.

I agree