Litigious patients are not the problemÂ
(PRWEB) March 6, 2001
The news that one in ten hospital patients is harmed by errors (70,000) is a figure that will shock the public, but clinical negligence experts are not surprised. What does surprise them though, is that the health industry continues to blame the legal profession for being over litigious and driving up the NHS bill.
According to the top clinical negligence web site, www. medical-accidents. co. uk, the blame should remain with hospital operating procedures and the system that still overworks surgeons and nursing staff. Patients who suffer from a mistake, and the families and friends left behind after someone dies, can only be expected to seek legal redress.
Adrian Miles, owner of www. medical-accidents. co. uk says:
“It is not surprising that so many die as a result of hospital blunders. What I do find amazing though, is that so few families actually succeed in going the full distance with a legal claim. One has to ask: why? Is it because it is still very difficult to sue a doctor because of a non-transparent system? Is it because cases take so long to go through the legal process when many people just want to rebuild their lives? Is it because there are sometimes cover ups where surgical staff deny the death was anything to do with the procedure they carried out, or that the complications were just one of the risks waived beforehand?”
“It is not just the personal cost to the patient, relatives and friends, but also the wider picture. There is a cost from the extra days in hospital needed by patients after such errors. This is running to at least £1bn a year according to a research team from University College London.”
The study was published in the British Medical Journal and looked at more than 1,000 medical and nursing records at two hospitals in London. These results were then extrapolated to produce national predictions. The survey also found that:
· almost 11% of patients suffered some sort of adverse event;
· in almost 50%, hospital staff should have prevented the errors;
· a third of the errors led to "moderate or greater impairment”;
· in 19% of cases, the decline in health was permanent;
· in 6%, the adverse event led to death.
ENDS.
For further information and interviews, contact: Matthew Clarke 01209 822060 or 07870 443535 or matthew@spinoffice. co. uk
Note for editors:
· www. medical-accidents. co. uk is owned and operated by Full Force Marketing, based in Cornwall.
· The site is part of a portfolio of facilities under www. interactive-law. co. uk.
· www. medical-accidents. co. uk is a REFERRAL site and only has solicitors on the panel if they hold a Clinical Negligence Franchise.
