Personal Injury Claims Bristol Blog

An NHS trust has been fined after it was discovered that basic errors caused the deaths of four patients. The trust that previously ran Stafford Hospital, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, admitted four charges relating to the deaths of elderly people between 2005 and 2014.  Where the trust was originally fined £500,000 for the “blunders”, the Department of Health has agreed to cover the fine, and additional £35,000 in costs, seeing as the trust is now defunct and has no funds.

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.

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.

With screenings playing an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of numerous illnesses, such as cancer, the NHS has recently been criticised for not using the equipment adequately.  The Science and Technology Committee has accused the NHS of “poor communication” on the issue of screenings, with people all over the UK being subject to both misdiagnosis and “overdiagnosis”.

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.