Personal Injury Claims Bristol Blog

Since it was closed in September of last year, patients of Bootham Park adult mental health unit in York have been travelling 50 miles to Roseberry Park in Middlesbrough to receive medical care.  The unit was closed very suddenly in September following an unannounced visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) when it was found that patients were at “significant risk of harm”.  The unit was given five days to close its doors, and since hundreds of vulnerable patients have been left with no assurances about their future care.  Bootham Park was York’s only psychiatric hospital.

A hospital trust has admitted to errors that resulted in the death of a newborn baby earlier this year. The baby girl died only two days after being born, with an investigation finding that she would have survived had her mother been given a caesarean section sooner. Delilah Hubbard died on 9 March in Leicester Royal Infirmary’s neonatal unit.

Researchers at the London School of Economics have stated that more than 100,000 people a year who require end of life care are just not getting it.  Their recently published report describes the current system as sadly lacking and in need of a “major overhaul”.  Terminally ill patients are being left suffering with insufficient pain relief and support.

The former partner of a woman who fell into a coma after giving birth to a son, who later died, is suing the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust for £1million. 46-year-old Christian Cooper remains in a ‘minimally responsive state’ and lives in a nursing home after suffering the heart attack at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in July 2005. 

A woman who was forced to wait for a year to have an operation for her severely painful womb condition has been sent an apology from the NHS. Dawn O’Toole was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2014 - a painful condition whereby tissue that behaves like that in the lining of the womb, is found outside the womb.  She urgently required a hysterectomy following the diagnosis, but never received an operation date.

A woman has finally had her brain tumour removed after her operation was cancelled and rescheduled three times. 24-year-old Emily Bennet, from Fernhill Heath near Worcester, was originally meant to have her tumour removed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham at the beginning of December.  However, it was cancelled because a more severe case required her operation slot at the hospital.

The family of a man who died of an undiagnosed ruptured spleen has described the fact that nobody has been held accountable for their son’s death as “shameful”. John Moore-Robinson, aged 20, died after being sent home from Stafford Hospital with a ruptured spleen that doctors had failed to recognise. His parents, Frank and Janet Robinson, feel that someone should be held accountable.

With over 150 people in England affected by Salmonella over the last few months, Public Health England is investigating the possible sources. Tests have already revealed that all the cases are linked to one particular source, but this has not yet been identified. The illness is usually linked to foods such as eggs and poultry, causing diarrhoea, stomach pains, sickness and fever.  Most people are able to recover without treatment; however, one hospital has reported three deaths in relation to the outbreak.

According to new research, patients have to wait in ambulance queues outside of A&E for hours before being seen by a doctor.  Last year more than 300,000 ambulances were forced to queue outside of hospitals in England with patients inside.  With a national waiting time target of 15 minutes, one patient waited for more than eight hours in an ambulance before being seen by a doctor.

A recent inspection at a West Haddon care home has made some worrying findings concerning health and safety precautions.  Foxhill Manor Nursing Home currently provides long-term Nursing Care to 34 patients, Respite Care and Day Care 7 days a week; however, the Care Quality Commission inspectors found numerous faulty appliances, scalding tap water and broken windows at the home, all of which could cause serious injury.  Many patients that suffer with degenerative conditions, such as dementia, are treated at the home. With a ‘philosophy’ that “aims to provide its Service Users with a secure, relaxed and homely environment”, the CQC demanded that “urgent action” is taken to improve its safety standards.

A confidential report into the out-of-hours services in the Southern Health Trust has highlighted numerous concerns regarding the way that it operates.  One GP described going to work as “walking into hell”, with the out-of-hours service accommodating a culture of threats and harassment, and poor patient safety.  The information was gathered in a series of workshops which spoke to 32 out-of-hours doctors.  The workshops aimed to assess the overall opinion and morale of the staff involved in the service.

Those who suffer with a brain injury are to face savage cuts to rehabilitation services, resulting in thousands of patients being denied help.  This finding comes as a result of an investigation carried out by the brain injury charity Headway, who worry that the cuts will cost the taxpayer far more money in the long run. 

The family of a girl who was left severely brain damaged after an operation has finally been awarded compensation following a twenty-year battle.  Nathalie Sugden was left with serious brain damage as a result of failures during a heart operation at Bristol Royal Infirmary.  The operation was carried out a month after her birth, August 1994, by a surgeon who was struck off for incompetence by the GMC following the failed operation.

The family of a young boy who died shortly after heart surgery in Bristol Children’s Hospital have referred to NHS issues as “disgusting”.  Luke Jenkins (7) was submitted to Bristol Children’s Hospital having suffered a cardiac arrest; he died shortly after heart surgery in March 2012. Luke’s parents recently discovered that his death was not recorded accurately in official figures submitted by the hospital.  They complained to the medical director of the NHS, who replied with an apology admitting that there must have been a data error.

Oxfordshire hospital trust has paid out more than any other hospital authority due to ‘mistakes and blunders’ in 2013.  Figures have revealed that the trust has seen a surge in cases, having risen by 1,000 per cent in less than a decade. When figures were first published in 2003/04, Oxfordshire paid out £2.3m to claimants, which has risen to almost £25m in 2013.  Figures have shown that Oxfordshire has paid out £113.7m to claimants in the last 10 years.

After an 84-year-old man died after falling and breaking his hip at the Ramsey Unit in the grounds of Furness General Hospital last year, a coroner has ruled that the fatal fall was unpreventable.   David Mole from Haverigg in southwest Cumbria died in July of last year after falling at an under-fire dementia care unit in Barrow.  The Care Quality Commission (CQC) issued the unit with two warning notices regarding “chronic staff shortages” only last month.

An NHS report has revealed that last month an 87-year-old man died after an East Midlands Ambulance Service crew lost the keys to their vehicle.  The elderly man had suffered a cardiac arrest on a local golf course, Derbyshire golf pavilion, and died there despite having been provided with treatment.  The report does not explicitly state that the lack of hospital transport was the reason for his death, but it has been listed as one of the eight EMAS incidents that were highlighted as being particularly serious in October.

The government has proposed new legislation that will see willful negligence being treated as a criminal offence under NHS changes that are to be revealed next week.  This decision has been made following the recent Mid Staffordshire scandal and others similar, which will see those guilty of “willful neglect” being sentenced to jail.  If found guilty, the offence will be punishable by up to five years in prison under the Mental Capacity Act.

A coroner has described 63-year-old Mike Martin’s case as “unacceptable” after he had to wait 13 hours in hospital before being taken into surgery, and sadly died during the wait.  Mr Martin was taken into Northampton General Hospital in February 2012 after complaining of such severe pain that he could not lie down – he was then left for 13 hours before surgery was available to him.

A health visitor working for Cambridgeshire Community Services has been struck off after failing to recognise that a baby in her care had a broken arm.  Despite the mother of the baby raising concern over worrying bruising that had appeared on her baby’s arm, Deborah Kendall failed to carry out any examination and failed to recognise the breakage.