NHS Medical Negligence

Having a baby should be an exciting and special time for mothers but last year it was reported that 151 mothers and babies died and 351 suffered severe harm, with approximately 340 mistakes being made on NHS maternity wards every day. NHS England figures show that 124,143 safety incidents were reported by NHS maternity wards last year alone. These figures where only based on those incidents that staff reported.

• Errors with forceps
• Epidurals being inserted into the wrong place
• Midwives not monitoring a foetus’ heart beat
• Emergency C-Sections being carried out too late
• Women and babies being harmed due to lack of staff
• Medical records being mixed up
• Drugs being incorrectly administered or drug charts being misinterpreted

Burd Ward handle Medical Negligence cases everyday including those involving pregnancy and child birth. One of our most recent cases involves an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy which led to our client having to undergo the removal of her fallopian tube and subsequently reduced chances of fertility. Another of our current cases involves the failure to recognise an infection following a C-section which has resulted a significant stomach wound and post-natal depression. But other claims can involve stillbirths or babies born with brain damage as a result of poor care.

Other recently reported Medical Negligence cases by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman include:

• The death of a nine-year-old boy from sepsis could have been avoided if he received the right care and treatment
• A man who became paraplegic after a road traffic accident was wrongly refused IVF treatment by the NHS.
• The next of kin were not informed by a hospital that a patient had died, denying them the chance to go to the funeral, due to a series of errors by the hospital trust and a council.
• Hospital took 72 weeks to arrange hip surgery on straightforward case, leaving patient in unnecessary pain, 17 months after she was first referred by her GP.
• A failure to x-ray a child’s teeth led to root canal treatment.
• A GP practice failed to urgently refer patient to a neurologist leading to a long delay in diagnosing his Motor Neurone Disease.
• A war pensioner had to wait 18 months for travel expenses to be paid by the NHS for trips to have an artificial limb fitted
• Hospital trust incorrectly diagnosed a woman with schizophrenia.
• A dental practice’s failure to diagnose decay in a child’s teeth over a three-year period, resulted in her having four teeth extracted and a crown inserted

As it stands NHS trusts often deny liability until the family is forced to instruct Solicitors to investigate what exactly went wrong, thereby dragging out the complaints by months, even years, while the families continue to grieve and suffer.