Suing the NHS for a 'Never Event'
NHS Improvement has recently published its list of 'never events' for the period April 2018 to March 2019. According to their report, 496 incidences of 'never event' issues occurred during the twelve-month period.
Never Events 2018 – 2019
The NHS England report identified a wide range of procedures which come under the heading never event occurring in the twelve months between April 2018 and March 2019.
This included the following:
- 207 occasions of 'wrong site surgery' such as a biopsy to the wrong breast, laser surgery to the wrong eye or wrong side of colon removed
- 104 incidences of a 'retained foreign object' such as a guide wire, a surgical needle or forceps
- 63 occasions of the wrong implant or prosthesis
The remaining occurrences included errors such as incorrect dosage or method of administration of medication and inappropriate blood transfusion.
In some cases, the impact on the patient of a 'never event' may be relatively insignificant in its long-term effects.
However, it can also produce devastating, long-term effects which can utterly change the life of the patient.
'Never events' are, as the name suggests, mistakes in carrying out hospital procedures which should never occur. Hospital guidelines, if followed correctly should prevent the occurrence of events such as incorrect surgery, the misadministration of medication and leaving various surgical objects inside the patient.
Nonetheless, 'never events' do occasionally occur as the 496 errors mentioned above confirm.
Case study
A recent client, whose case settled for over £300,000, started to suffer abdominal pain and swelling after bowel surgery. After considerable delays and further investigations, it was felt necessary that he should undergo further surgery. It was only at this point that it was discovered that an 18 inch piece of plastic had been left in our client's abdomen.
It was considered by our expert that, had this not occurred, our client would not have developed further abdominal problems requiring additional surgery and a colostomy.
Medical negligence
The NHS's own observations on 'never events' make the following comment:
'Never Events are different from other Serious Incidents as the overriding principle of having the Never Events list is that even a single Never Event acts as a red flag that an organisation's systems for implementing existing safety advice/alerts may not be robust.'.
Where the system fails, medical professionals working under considerable pressure may find that they have inadvertently caused a 'never event' to occur. The action may have been unintentional but, when a 'never event' has occurred, the patient may be left with debilitating, long-term problems.
Where this is the case, it may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
Speak to a solicitor
If you or a loved one are struggling with the significant impact of a medical error which should never have happened, contact Glynns to talk to a specialist medical negligence solicitor about suing the NHS.
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