Aberdeen hospital 'must up fight against infection risk'

Patients at a Scottish hospital were given contaminated baby wipes and cleansing gel to use, according to inspectors.

Healthcare Environment Inspectorate uncovered faults at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and said more needed to be done to minimise the risk of infection to patients, visitors and staff.

Contaminated equipment, including dirty commodes and bed rails, was found in more than one ward at the hospital in the June inspection while baby wipes and cleansing gel provided for shared patient use had dirty marks on the packaging.

Inspectors raised this immediately with the senior charge nurse as "toiletries should be provided for single use and not shared".

Although the wards at the hospital were generally found to be clean, dust was uncovered on curtain rails, bedside equipment and under beds. Clinical gloves had also been put into bins designed for domestic waste.

The report states: "Overall, we observed good compliance with standard infection and control precautions during this inspection. However, we did find that further improvement is required."

Clinical manager for acute sector Jonathan Lofthouse said the report showed "significant progress" with strong developments taking place at the hospital. He said an action plan was in place at the hospital to ensure improvements were made.

This article is courtesy of the Herald Scotland.

Austrailian hospital pays out $15M

More than $15 million in compensation has been quietly paid to two disabled Austrailians from Canberra in the past nine months because of medical negligence at Calvary Public Hospital when they were children.

The two large payouts mean Calvary Public Hospital's compensation bill for 2012-13 appears to exceed the $10.5 million paid out by the territory's biggest health provider, Canberra Hospital, in the same period.

Calvary Public has refused to reveal its total medical negligence bill from recent years but settlement documents in the ACT Supreme Court show the hospital paid $8 million of the $15 million to a 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, a condition linked to allegedly poor treatment during pregnancy and birth in 2001.

The hospital also paid another $250,000 in legal costs to the boy's legal firm Slater and Gordon.

It was alleged that during the mother's pregnancy, the hospital did not diagnose and treat cholestasis, described by medical textbooks as a failure of the liver in which bile cannot flow from the liver to the first part of the small intestine.

The plaintiff's lawyers argued that consensus opinion among obstetricians considered it a dangerous condition that could injure the foetus and damage a baby's brain.

Intensive monitoring before birth and during labour was recommended as well as early delivery no later than 38 weeks' gestation.

Instead the mother, who brought the legal action on behalf of her son in 2012, did not have the baby until she was full term and the baby was born floppy and blue and did not cry at birth.

The second case involved a 20-year-old woman paid $7 million, plus $164,641 for costs to her legal firm, Maurice Blackburn, because of an alleged failure to diagnose severe complications in her diabetes, a condition known as ketoacidosis, when she was three years old.

According to court documents, responsibility for the payout was shared between the two defendants, Calvary Hospital and Dr John Petelczyc, after a seven-year legal battle.

Despite the negotiated settlement, the court paperwork shows Calvary and Dr Petelczyc did not admit to incorrectly diagnosing the patient and denied negligence and causing damage to the patient.

In particular the doctor denied he first made a false diagnosis, followed by a delayed diagnosis, of the girl's diabetic condition.

In the statement of claim filed in the court, the list of the woman's disabilities runs to almost two A4 pages and includes short fingers, malformed feet, blindness in the left eye, impaired memory and gross motor function and language skills, as well as an inability to travel on her own or work

This article is courtesy of the canberratimes.com.au.

Stafford Hospital prosecuted over Gillian Astbury death

Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust is to be prosecuted over a patient who died after entering a diabetic coma, the Health and Safety Executive has said.

Gillian Astbury, 66, died at Stafford Hospital in April 2007 when two nurses did not spot she needed insulin.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel found Ann King and Jeannette Coulson guilty of misconduct.

Trust chief executive Maggie Oldham apologised for the "appalling care" Mrs Astbury received.

'Downright furious'

Peter Galsworthy from the Health and Safety Executive said the hospital would be prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

He said: "The immediate cause of death was the failure to administer insulin to a known, diabetic patient.
 
"How could they miss she needed insulin? It's just basic care” Catherine Beeson Gillian Astbury's daughter

"Our case alleges that the trust failed to devise, implement or properly manage structured and effective systems of communication for sharing patient information, including in relation to shift handovers and record-keeping."

The first hearing will be at Stafford Magistrates' Court on 9 October.

Speaking in 2010, Mrs Astbury's friend and full-time carer Ron Street said: "I am downright furious. I could not believe [her diabetes] was missed".

Catherine Beeson, Mrs Astbury's daughter, said: "I was shocked to get that call that evening. I was disbelieving.

"How could they miss she needed insulin? It's just basic care."

Staffordshire Police said: "We acknowledge the decision of the HSE and their announcement today to charge Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.

"Our review of information brought to light by the Francis Inquiry Report has been progressing since the report's publication in February.

"The substantial nature and complex scope of the report, as well as the requirement to liaise with a wide number of stakeholders, means that we are currently continuing with the review.

"We cannot give any further details at this time due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the HSE as we would not wish to prejudice any future decisions."

This is article is courtesy of BBC News.

Patient almost lost his only healthy testicle; hospital says staff has undergone more training

San Diego fined Sharp Memorial Hospital $75,000 Thursday for a surgical mistake that nearly cost a local man his only healthy testicle.

In an investigative report of the incident, the California Department of Public Health found that a surgeon made an incision “about a couple inches long” on the right side of the patient’s groin before realizing it was the left testicle that was to be removed due to an abnormal lesion.

After realizing his mistake, the surgeon closed the incision with surgical adhesive and made a new cut on the left side and later admitted, during an interview with regulators, that the error came down to a lack of focus on the task at hand.

“The surgeon acknowledged that ‘It was our job to concentrate at that moment, and we didn’t. Everybody heard but didn’t listen,’ ” the report states.

The patient suffered more post-surgery discomfort than he should have due to the dual incisions.

Sharp issued a statement Thursday apologizing to the patient and saying it has investigated the incident, which occurred in December 2011, and has undertaken additional training of its staff.

“We are extremely sorry that our patient unnecessarily incurred a surgical incision,” Sharp said.

Sharp was the only local facility among 10 hospitals statewide fined a total of $675,000 for medical errors that caused, or were likely to cause, the serious injury or death of a patient.

The Sharp incident was the second time the state has fined a local hospital for a wrong site surgery in less than a year. In December, the regulator fined Kaiser Permanente of San Diego $75,000 for mistakenly removing an 85-year-old man’s right kidney in 2010, even though a CT scan indicated that it was his left kidney that contained a cancerous tumor.

In that case, the state found that the surgeon failed to look at a CT scan to confirm which kidney was cancerous before starting the procedure.

After investigating the Sharp incident, the state concluded that the hospital’s surgical team did not follow the procedures designed to prevent wrong-side surgeries. Those fail-safes require the surgeon and a nurse to visually and verbally verify the surgical site before the patient is transferred to the operating room.

Once in the operating room, hospital policy requires the anesthesiologist, scrub person and circulating nurse to again confirm the patient’s identity, surgical site, type of surgery and to review the patient’s consent form. Finally, after the patient is put under anesthesia, the whole team must take a “time out” to focus on the procedure they are about to perform and run through all of the checks. Studies have shown that taking a time out just before starting a surgery can help reduce medical errors.

The state’s report indicated that the surgeon failed to mark the location before the patient entered the operating room and that a nurse verbally verified the left side but “assumed he had marked the patient’s left groin.”

The report noted that, despite the entire team taking a time out, the error was not discovered before the incision.

In a written response to the state, Sharp stated that it conducted mandatory training of all operating-room staff after the incident and conducted 70 randomly selected audits of procedures per month to make sure that surgical sites were being properly marked. Those audits, Sharp said, resulted in a 100 percent compliance rate.

This article is courtesy of U-T San Diego.

Woman to launch lawsuit over unnecessary mastectomy

A Canadian woman is planning to file a civil suit after a mix-up led to her having an unnecessary mastectomy.

The woman, in her 60s, had the surgery after an error by Capital Health. Another woman never got the surgery she required.

So far, no compensation has been given to any of the women involved in the mishap.

“We haven’t been served any papers for lawsuits now, and that would be up to our patients yet, and we can’t speak for them” said Chris Power, CEO of Capital Health.

But that could soon change.

Ray Wagner, a lawyer representing the woman who had the mastectomy, said he plans to file a civil suit by the end of the month.

“The emotional aspect of having to deal with cancer and then have to deal with the fact that you have to lose a breast to a mastectomy, that’s obviously very difficult,” he said. “And then after going through all of those emotions, to find out that it was all a mistake, then of course you become angry.”

Human error is the only explanation that’s been given for the two mishaps within Capital Health.

“This is very difficult for staff too because they’re working extremely hard to do the right things and do a great job and they typically do,” said Power. ”So you can imagine this has been very difficult for them. But this is I think a combination … of systems and human error.”

David Wilson, health and wellness minister for Nova Scotia, said the situation was unfortunate.

“You could have the most advanced technology and equipment, you could have all the checks and balances, the system is still run by people and human error happens,” he said.

Nova Scotia has the highest levels of breast cancer in the country, on average there are about 760 cases a year in the province with the majority being women.

“I think like most Nova Scotians, I watched the story unfold with a sense of disbelief, I don’t think anyone who goes into a hospital anticipates that these kinds of things are even a possibility” said Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter.

Power pointed out that this is the first time a mishap of this magnitude has happened.

“Certainly not to our knowledge has this happened before in Nova Scotia, it’s happened in other parts of Canada and it’s happened around the world for sure” said Power.

She said different employees were involved in the two mishaps — but no action has been taken on any them.

“We work very hard to try to create a no-blame culture here at Capital Health, so we use these opportunities to as learning opportunities. How can we do things differently? How can we be sure that we put in place processes so these things don’t happen again?”

Barbara Thompson, the executive director of Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia, a group that provides support and services for women suffering from breast cancer, is a 14-year survivor of the disease.

“Having gone through the process of thinking that she had breast cancer was devastating enough and that means going through all the tests and procedures and meetings with the doctors, so to lose a breast is one part of that but it’s the lasting effect unfortunately.”

Thompson believes the mix up will initially shake the security many have in the health care system.

“How long did the woman go without being told that she had breast cancer and what does this mean for her long term diagnosing? It must be devastating for her and her family.”

The hospital is planning to implement a bar-coding system for lab tests in the future to eliminate similar errors.

This article is courtesy of Global News.

The simple medical error that can lead to elderly patients losing a limb

When the Rev Grahame Stephens developed leg ulcers earlier this year, staff at his GP surgery assumed the cause was problems with his veins.

That’s because 70 per cent of leg ulcers are venous, which means they’ve been caused when persistently high blood pressure in leg veins causes fluid to leak out, causing swelling and damage to the skin.

Eventually, the skin breaks down and forms an ulcer, or open wound, typically just above the ankle.

But there are other causes of leg ulcers, including poor circulation in the arteries, diabetes, inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, injury and leg tumours.

And because the mechanisms that lead to ulcers are different, they need different treatments.

Ulcers can also have a mixture of  causes. The problem is a misdiagnosis can lead to the wrong treatment, with bad results.

For example, if a leg ulcer is caused by a blocked artery, the cure is clearing the blockage and restoring a healthy blood supply to the foot and lower leg.

Delay in doing so makes the ulcer worse (infection can set in, which can lead to blood poisoning, gangrene and amputation).

But if this kind of leg ulcer is treated with compression bandages (the ‘gold standard’ treatment for venous leg ulcers, as the pressure increases blood flow in the veins), it can make the problem worse, as the bandages can reduce blood flow in the artery still further.

Rev Stephens’ ulcers were dressed with ordinary bandages. But over the next three weeks, rather than improving, they got worse. When the 79-year-old, a married retired priest from Bexley, Kent, went back to have the ulcers dressed, the nurse called in the doctor for a second opinion.

‘They tested the pulse in my foot for the first time and it was very weak,’ says Rev Stephens. ‘They said it suggested a problem with blood supply to my foot, saying I needed to see a vascular surgeon.’

Until then, he’d had no problems linked to blocked arteries and had been very healthy, running marathons until the age of 63. Concerned about his left leg, which by then had three large open wounds just above the ankle, causing excruciating pain from infection, he decided to pay for an appointment with a private specialist that day rather than wait for an NHS appointment.

The specialist tested his pulse at the top of his leg and on his foot and diagnosed a blockage in the main artery supplying blood to the leg.

‘He said the lack of blood in the lower part of my leg was causing the ulcer,’ says Rev Stephens. This is because when blood supply is poor, tissues are starved of oxygen and nutrients and so break down, forming an ulcer.

Rev Stephens was then referred to the NHS Royal London Hospital, where his consultant, vascular surgeon Constantinos Kyriakides, works (he is also in private practice at London Bridge Hospital). By this time, Rev Stephens had three large ulcers and half a dozen small ones.

Staff measured blood flow in his legs. The key test was a colour duplex ultrasound scan, which looks at leg arteries and veins using an ultrasound probe. Gel is spread on the skin and the probe is run along the legs, measuring blood flow.

This test, which takes 45 minutes per leg, tells doctors whether valves in the veins are working properly, and whether blood is flowing freely in the arteries, pinpointing blockages. ‘The information is instantly available, and it’s totally non-invasive,’ says Mr Kyriakides. But the probe cannot be used reliably over areas where the skin is breached, such as ulcers. ‘Pressing a probe over an open wound can be painful,’ says Mr Kyriakides.

Another test is a CT angiogram, which is also non-invasive and takes a few minutes using a powerful X-ray machine to photograph the veins and arteries in the legs. It requires a dye to be injected, usually through a vein in the hand or arm, and the information can take up to an hour to become available.

The test results confirmed Rev Stephens had a major blockage in the main artery of his leg, caused by a furring up of the blood vessels, which needed urgent attention. He also had vein problems. He had an operation under local anaesthetic the next day.

‘It took almost an hour and involved guiding a tube into the artery through an incision in my groin, threading a balloon down the artery and inflating it at the problem area to clear the blockage. Then a good blood supply started flowing into my foot again.’

With the blockage cleared, Rev Stephens could have the ulcer treated in the normal way with a compression bandage.

His story underlines a serious issue about some leg ulcer patients failing to receive the right treatment. Between 1 and 2 per cent of Britons suffer from leg ulcers. The condition is more common in the elderly — affecting one in 50 people over 80 — and those with mobility issues, obesity and varicose veins because they are more likely to have vein and artery problems or diabetes.

Yet not everyone receives the same standard of treatment, as Wendy Hayes, a vascular nurse consultant and spokesperson for the Circulation Foundation explains. ‘Despite Royal College of Nursing guidelines and local policies, it depends how services are developed and delivered in your area,’ she says. ‘There’s an awful lot of good practice, but it’s patchy across the country.

‘In some cases hospital care of leg ulcers comes under vascular services; in others dermatology.’

Treatment at a vascular unit is likely to be superior to that at a dermatology one, says Mr Kyriakides. At Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, where Ms Hayes is based, patients are seen by a vascular surgeon and specialist nurses ‘who undertake an assessment with the help of clinical vascular lab staff’.

Specially trained nurses should be able to tell quickly what is causing the leg ulcers from the patient’s medical history, looking for symptoms and undertaking simple tests that do not require a hospital visit.

Diabetes, injuries, varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis increase the risk, and the underlying cause needs to be treated.

A common test is the Ankle Brachial Pressure Index, which measures blood pressure in the arm and compares it with that at the ankle. If the readings are the same, this suggests the ulcer is venous (as the blood flow isn’t affected by a blockage). If the readings are different, it indicates a blocked artery. But not all nurses have been trained to do this test.

Venous leg ulcers appear as dark coloured skin near the ulcer, which can be exacerbated by eczema, and are usually around the ankle. Varicose veins, deep vein thrombosis, obesity and immobility can all contribute to venous leg ulcers. Arterial ulcers are more likely to be on the foot because they are the furthest point from the heart with the worst blood supply. The leg may also be cool, the pulse at the ankle weak or absent, the blood pressure ankle reading low and there is significant pain, even when lying down.

‘Unless patients are assessed properly, you can’t treat them properly,’ says Ms Hayes. ‘There are a lot of experienced nurses who care for patients with leg ulcers, but we should aspire for all nurses who care for patients with leg ulceration to have the necessary skills.

‘In some cases, the underlying cause will not be clear and patients will benefit from specialist input. This may involve procedures only available in hospitals.’

Mr Kyriakides adds: ‘The problem lies when there are mixed causes, which occur in ten to 20 per cent of cases. For example, part venous, part arterial. Some medical staff don’t know how to manage it. These patients need to have their circulation tested and, if necessary, undergo procedures such as angioplasty to improve blood flow.

‘If they don’t receive the appropriate care, it can make the problem worse. Limb loss is a real risk, although thankfully life loss from blood poisoning is rare.’

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises that anyone with a venous leg ulcer that has not healed after two weeks should be referred to a hospital vascular unit for assessment.

Mr Kyriakides says ideally all patients would go to a specialist vascular unit for assessment and planning. But this would have a huge cost impact and most patients can be treated in the community.

Since his operation in June, Rev Stephens has gone from strength to strength. ‘The ulcers are healing nicely and I’m so grateful for my treatment on the NHS. Everyone should have access to this level of care.’

This article is courtesy of the Mail Online.

Ontario hospitals divulge 36 incidents last year where medication mistakes led to harm or death

Ontario hospitals divulged 36 incidents last year where medication-related mistakes led to patients suffering severe harm or even death, according to a new report that offers a rare snapshot of health-care error — and the dire consequences it can have for patients.

They included cases of patients getting huge overdoses of powerful narcotic painkillers, receiving the wrong drug or being administered a dangerous extra dose, the report reveals.

Ten patients died because of the mistakes, while 26 suffered harm that required life-saving intervention to fix, shortened life or caused major disability.

The report summarizes the first year of results since the Ontario government ordered hospitals to report “critical incidents” — the most serious of medical errors — involving drugs or intravenous (IV) fluids.

Problems programming IV pumps, communication breakdowns, frequent distractions and mix-ups between drug products were among the causes cited for the mishaps.

“It’s important that this information be collected … because that’s the only way we can get a handle on the big threats to the system,” said Ross Baker, a University of Toronto health-policy professor and one of Canada’s leading experts on “adverse events.”

“We continue to find new ways in which the system has potential lapses, or potential ways it can fail, which just raises the ongoing challenge to eliminating these kinds of events.”

Only hospitals in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec have similar mandates to report critical incidents, said Jessica Ma, an analyst with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), which produced the new Ontario report for the provincial government.

And it appears that Manitoba is the only other province to publicly release results, mostly in the form of case studies.

Mr. Baker co-authored a landmark 2004 study that estimated preventable adverse events related to surgery, drugs and other hospital treatment caused between 9,200 and 24,000 deaths a year. Patient safety has become a major preoccupation of health care since then, but detailed public reporting of specific events is still relatively uncommon.

The ISMP report, issued earlier this year, summarizes information submitted by hospitals to the Canadian Institute for Health Information between October 2011 and December 2012.

It found that opiods — drugs like hydromorphone, oxycodone and fentanyl — accounted for more than a quarter of the incidents, while blood thinners such as heparin were named in 13% of cases. Adrenaline-like drugs and anesthetics were among six other classes of medication that each accounted for about 7% of incidents.

Giving patients drugs at the wrong rate, administering the incorrect medication or dispensing an erroneous number of doses were among the major reasons blamed for errors.

A detailed bulletin issued earlier this year by ISMP describes the case of a patient who was supposed to receive .2 to .4 milligrams of hydromorphone every hour, as needed for pain. By mistake, someone gave a 4 mg dose — a “10-fold error” — and the person was found dead soon afterward. Overdoses of such opioids can cause breathing to slow to a halt, triggering cardiac arrest.

The ready availability of high-concentration hydromorphone was contrary to expert recommendations that doses off 2 mg or more be kept in the hospital pharmacy, not on patient floors, ISMP said.

The ready availability of high-concentration hydromorphone was contrary to expert recommendations that doses off 2 mg or more be kept in the hospital pharmacy, not on patient floors, ISMP said

The summary report also notes ongoing mix-ups between medications whose names or packaging are similar, with such confusion leading to eight incidents, four of them fatal. The “look-alike, sound-alike” issue has long been identified as a danger, with Health Canada now screening new drugs to try to ensure their names and labeling are not too similar to other products.

Hospitals have actually made strides to deal with drug-related and other error, Mr. Baker said.

But the types of risky medications highlighted in the Ontario report — including opioid painkillers and blood thinners — are increasingly now being dispensed in a wider array of settings, including nursing homes and home care, where the same safeguards may not have been implemented, he noted.

Only hospitals, though, are now required to report critical events.

Both Mr. Baker and Ms. Ma said patients should welcome such reports, stressing they are meant to expose problems, not level blame.

“Effective reporting is essential to learning,” said Ms. Ma.

This article is courtesy of the National Post.

Parents claim son was left brain-damaged after hospital infection

Parents who claim their son was brain-damaged by an infection caught at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital in the 1980s are launching a legal bid for compensation.

Paul Kirtland, now 30, was diagnosed with brain damage at five months old. His parents believe it was caused by klebsiella oxytoca – an infection they claim he caught at the hospital in May 1983.

Now Dushka and David Kirtland are preparing a claim to help pay for their son’s care after their deaths.

The hospital has confirmed it was aware of the infection and five other cases in the 10 months leading up to his admission, but has denied negligence.
 The Kirtlands’ lawyers Blake Lapthorn are investigating three more potential infection cases during the same period, and have called for the families involved to come forward.

Paul was born on May 1, 1983, full-term, weighing 7lb 8oz. He was admitted to the special care baby unit after doctors detected a low body temperature and he developed hypoglycema.

Mrs Kirtland, 59, from Nuffield Road, Headington, said: “They told us he was going to live and there may be some brain damage. We thought we would laugh about that on his 18th birthday.

“When he was five months old I started thinking that he couldn’t see very well. They said he was brain damaged and that he would probably never walk, talk or see.
 “He can walk, he can talk and he can partially see, so it’s much better than the prognosis we were given, but it’s all relative.”

Paul suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is hard of hearing. He will need a wheelchair later in life.

Mrs Kirtland, 59, said: “I have never gone on and had another child because Paul is a full-time job, but he’s a beautiful boy.

“At the time we decided we were just going to take him home and love him, and that’s what we’ve done.

“But about six years ago I lost my father and father-in-law in the same year, and we suddenly realised we were next on the conveyor belt.

“We are quite certain it was the infection that caused Paul’s problems, and we do feel very let down.”

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust last night confirmed letters were exchanged between clinicians about the outbreak and that it sought advice at the time, but was told by the Health Authority that it was happy with infection control measures.

Medical director Edward Baker said: “The trust will contest any legal claim in this case, as the trust does not believe that Mr Kirtland’s brain damage was caused by the klebsiella oxytoca infection he had whilst he was in the SCBU unit in 1983.

“Unfortunately, Mr Kirtland's long-term problems arose as a consequence of his other illnesses for which he had been admitted to SCBU and which were unrelated to the infection.

“In the 10 months prior to Mr Kirtland’s admission to the SCBU the trust had five cases of this infection in the SCBU unit out of approximately 350 admissions. This is not an unusual infection for babies in SCBU units and the numbers do not show that there was an increased risk of cross-infection.”

The Kirtlands’ lawyer Sue Jarvis said: “If the other individuals affected were to give us permission to access their records it would help us.”

What is the bacteria?

Klebsiella oxytoca is a bacterium which can infect parts of the body including the colon, nasopharynx and skin.

The infection is common in hospital admissions and can be transferred between patients by medical staff.

Most people who become infected are those with weak immune systems, such as newborns and people suffering from alcoholism, diabetes and other diseases.

It can have repercussions such as brain damage and urinary tract infections which can spread to the kidneys and lead to renal failure. 

This article is courtesy of the Oxford Mail.

Maninder Singh death hospital agrees compensation payout

A hospital has agreed to compensate the family of a baby who died after being starved of oxygen when midwives failed to notice he had been born.

Maninder Singh was born under bed sheets at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester in October 2008, while his mother was numb from an epidural.

The delay in resuscitating him led to his further decline and death six months later, a coroner found.

The hospital apologised in April and has reached an out of court settlement.

Bosses have agreed to compensate father Kamaljeet with an undisclosed sum for the additional financial strain placed on the family as he spent the six months leading to his son's death by his side.
'Fought so hard'

Maninder's mother Geeta died in 2010 from complications following the birth of the couple's second child.

Mr Singh said: "We lost a much-loved son under horrific circumstances.

"We have fought so hard and we waited so long to receive an apology and an admission that more could have been done to save him.
"No amount of money in the world could ever replace what we have lost, but we are now finally in position to move forward with our lives.

"We feel that in some small way justice has been done."

Solicitors representing the family have questioned why it took the hospital four years to admit fault and apologise.

Sharon Williams, of Irwin Mitchell, said: "The family want assurances that lessons have been learnt from the failings identified in the trust's own investigation, clarity as to why there have been such delays in admitting fault and an apology to be made to the family - not only for their loss, but for any additional heartache they have endured during this process."

This article is courtesy of BBC News.

There's a world of difference in the cost of treatment abroad

Expats buying private medical cover will often be shaken by what it costs. But a few might be pleasantly surprised.

Medical procedures carried out in different countries to the same standards and with the same success rates can vary widely in cost.

Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development pointed out that a heart bypass in the USA is 50 per cent more expensive than in Canada. This reflects in insurance premiums.

Wage structures in the health professions in different countries pay a huge part in the variations. With some 70 per cent of medical costs attributable to labour, union bargaining power is a decisive factor. High pay rates are a particular feature of the US health care system.

Another factor is professional indemnity insurance, prevalent in litigious societies such as the USA. The more patients seek to sue, the greater the indemnity costs.

Then there is "defensive medicine". To cover themselves against the slightest chance of a negligence claim, doctors order every test imaginable. This again adds to costs, yet invasive tests may, paradoxically, constitute some risk to health.

Much also depends on the nature of the state health care system. In this regard, no two countries are alike.

In the case of America, private patients effectively subsidise the two state-run health care systems, Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (for the poor), economists claim.

They say state purchasing power so forces down prices that the middle classes effectively fund part of the system. Squeezed hospitals turn to insurers and self-payers to stay in profit.

On the other side of the globe, shortage of western-standard hospital care pumps up prices. The owners of a dozen such hospitals in Hong Kong have a free rein to charge what they like because occupancy is 100 per cent and demand unmet. Such units can happily charge three times the going rate for a diagnostic scan.

The degree of price variations is bought home in a new report by the London-based International Federation of Health Plans, representing 100 insurance companies. The average cost of a CT scan for the head is US$82 in Argentina, US$175 in UK and US$566 in America.

The highest prices for what is a routine procedure can be around US$1,672 in America, according to figures from the World Health Organisation and OECD. On the surgical front, average prices for appendix removal are (all US$):

• Argentina 953
• Spain 2,245
• South Africa 3,381
• UK 3,408
• Chile 4,221
• France 4,463
• Netherlands 4,498
• Switzerland 4,782
• New Zealand 5,392
• Australia 5,467
• USA 8,156

Disparities are smaller, but still significant, on prescription drug charges, the report says. Vytorin, for high cholesterol, costs an average, in US$:

• Argentina 31
• New Zealand 55
• UK 68
• Switzerland 70
• Spain 80
• USA 120

Given such stark variations in care costs, it's hardly surprising that international insurers are "zoning" more assiduously when setting premiums. Until recently, the practice was to split the world into three zones. Now, some insurers are splicing up the globe eight ways.

This article is courtesy of The Telegraph.

NHS: £22m compensation bill for care failures as Coalition slashes 5,000 nursing staff

The crisis-hit NHS has paid out £22million in compensation claims for bad nursing care – as the Tory-led Coalition slashes staff on the wards.

More than 1,100 claims have been won against overstretched hospitals in the past five years after patients ended up injured, maimed or dead.

In each case “inadequate nursing care” was recorded as part of the reason for a compensation payout for negligence.

Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dr Peter Carter warned the NHS would be unable to stop even more patients suffering “inadequate care” without “safe staffing levels”.

Dr Carter added: “The number of patients is rising yet numbers of nursing staff are dropping.”

In the last year alone the NHS has been forced to pay out £100,000 every week in damages, a Daily Mirror investigation has found.

Separate figures yesterday showed the Tory-led coalition has axed more than 5,000 nursing staff since David Cameron came to power in May 2010.

And campaigners warned that more would suffer in future because the Government has “done everything it can” to avoid acting on the recommendations of the inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal which saw up to 1,200 patients die unnecessarily.

Alarmingly, nurses say they have been forced to ration care on wards because they do not have time to devote proper attention to all their patients.

Our data from the NHS Litigation Authority, gained under the Freedom of Information Act, shows most payouts came after patients suffered bed sores.

The risk of developing these open wounds, which can trigger life-threatening complications, can be reduced if patients are regularly moved and not allowed to lie in the same position.

Other successful claims were for broken bones, fractures, “unnecessary pain” and even death.

Dr Carter added: “These figures show unacceptable costs – serious personal costs for patients and serious financial costs for the NHS.

"Patient safety has to be the priority of everyone in the health service. However, this can only be delivered through safe staffing levels.

“Nurses are looking after patients with critical health problems and trying to balance this with just as crucial specialised, supportive care such as feeding patients and reassuring them.

“Nurses have ever-increasing tasks but extremely limited time to complete them.

"We need to invest in our nursing workforce now to make sure we address these problems and prevent any inadequate care in the future.”

Our investigation shows the NHS paid £22,283,132 in damages in the past five years where a recorded cause was “inadequate nursing care”.

That is enough to fund 716 nurses for a whole year.

There were 1,138 claims settled between 2008 and 2013. In just the past year £5,117,274, was paid out for 229 successful claims.

Patients Association chief Katherine Murphy said the figures were a clear “indicator of the strain the NHS is under”.

She added: “We do not believe nurses set out to deliver inadequate care.

“Instead they are let down by a system which allows a culture of poor care to develop, caused by a lack of resources, combined with an ageing population which places greater demand on those who deliver care for the elderly.

“It is not just about staffing numbers, it is vital that hospitals are employing the right people with the right skills.

"The recommendations of the Francis inquiry into failings at Stafford Hospital set out a clear pathway to making patients safer and improving the way that they are cared for in hospital.

“Yet the Government has done everything it can to avoid implementing those recommendations. This has to change if we want to tackle the culture of care that allows incidents like these to occur.”

Senior nurses recently issued an “unprecedented warning” about low hospital ward staffing in England.

The Safe Staffing Alliance, which includes the Royal College of Nursing and Unison, said wards regularly have one registered nurse caring for eight patients – which they say is unsafe.

The alliance says the one nurse to eight patients ratio should not be seen as a minimum acceptable level, and the risk of death increases if a nurse is asked to look after more than eight patients.

A Patient Concern spokesman said: “Unless mandatory minimum nursing numbers per ward are set by the Department of Health, bad care will persist because qualified staff can’t cope. Hospitals must stop dismissing feeding, washing and toileting as ‘basic care’.”

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP said: “Report after report has warned David Cameron of the central importance of nurse numbers in providing safe care. But the cuts to the NHS frontline show he is ignoring these warnings and allowing hospitals across England to operate without safe staffing levels.

“It is simply unacceptable that, six months on, the Government has failed to take action on the minimum staffing recommendation in the Francis Report.This complacency can’t carry on.”

A Department of Health spokesman did not deny nursing staff has been cut by 5,000 but claimed overall NHS staff has increased.

He said: “Most NHS care is excellent and there are now nearly 3,500 more clinical staff than in May 2010.”.

Tony Fluendy died after getting extensive bed sores in hospital because of poor care.

The Daily Mirror reader, 74, also caught pneumonia at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent, following admission for a stroke.

He died in June 2010 of MRSA and sepsis.

His family only took legal action when they were enraged by the hospital’s attempts to hide mistakes.

A coroner called Tony’s care “inadequate”.

The nurse responsible for pressure sores did not examine Tony until he had had them for two weeks, because she had been away and the other specialist nurse was “inexperienced”.

The sores were then not treated properly.

His daughter Julie, 51, of Dartford, said Tony was in a special bed to prevent pressure sores but nurses did not realise when it stopped working.

She added: “We felt very strongly that taking legal action against the NHS was wrong.

"But their report into Tony’s death after our complaint made us furious.

"They tried to show they were not at fault. We decided we had to act to stop others going through the same.

“We were appalled by the seemingly uncaring attitude of many staff and the apparent lack of basic nursing skills and kindness.

"The report did not highlight any of this.”

Julie said the hospital was so short-staffed, she had to help a nurse lift a patient into bed.

The hospital, which has paid out a five figure sum to his family, said more nurses had been hired and training improved.

A spokesman said: “We offer sincere condolences to Mr Fluendy’s family and accept nursing care and treatment of his pressure ulcers did not meet standards.”

Irwin Mitchell lawyer Anita Jewitt, who represented his family in their civil claim, said: “Time and time again we deal with cases where patients have been tragically killed or left with permanent injuries as a result of hospital staff negligence.”

This article is courtesy of the Mirror.

Ex-convict furious after £10,000 medical negligence payout is confiscated

An ex-convict who nearly died in jail of undiagnosed cancer is furious after the funds paid out in compensation were confiscated by the Crown Prosecution Service.

David Paul, 34, was caught with five kilos of cocaine at Manchester Airport in May 2008, one of six involved in a drug trafficking ring worth an estimated £1.5 million smuggling cocaine from the Caribbean to the UK.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison at Manchester Crown Court in 2009.

Shortly after he was jailed Mr Paul was taken ill after his left testicle ballooned up to six inches in width.

The former drug addict was told he had an infection and was given antibiotics, but ten months later discovered he had a "rare and aggressive" form of testicular cancer and had just two years to live.

The medical blunder was admitted by The Pennine Acute Hospitals in January 2010 who paid Mr Paul £10,000 in compensation.

However eight months later the CPS suddenly launched a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), leaving Mr Paul on his release from jail with nothing.
 Mr Paul said: "I put it in a high interest account for two years.

"After nearly dying I turned my life around and beat cancer against all the odds.

"Every day I looked forward to that money.

"I thought I could do my driving lessons or put it toward a deposit for a flat.

"Now I have nothing to start my life with."

The confiscation order, for £29,910 against Mr Paul began in September 2010, a year after he was jailed.

The CPS still hope to claim a further £19,000.

The POCA allows courts to file a confiscation order after a conviction and "make assumptions" about money made by defendants six years previous to their conviction if they are deemed to have led a "criminal lifestyle".
 This allows the CPS to continually dip into ex-convicts accounts to seize any money made in the future without exception - a right criticised for working against the rehabilitation of ex-offenders and preventing them from getting their lives back on track.

Mr Paul said he had a "death wish" before he was jailed and didn’t care if he lived or died but has now turned his life around after he was given the all clear and released from prison after serving four and half years.

He said: "I was a drug addict.

"That’s why I did it.

"It was stupid and I completely regret it but I’m a completely different person now."

A CPS spokesperson said: "Once a POCA order has been made, this order remains outstanding until the full amount has been paid.

"If an individual has come into possession of further assets, the confiscation order will be revisited and those assets seized.

"POCA orders are a lifetime order and we will ensure that offenders pay back in full what they gained from crime." 

This article is courtesy of Your Local Guardian.co.uk.

Royal Free Hospital agrees £84,000 compensation award over 'sweat tests' mistake

A girl who was wrongly given the all-clear for a potentially fatal condition at the Royal Free Hospital is off to Disney World on a “holiday of a lifetime” after being awarded  £84,000 compensation.

Libby Pitman, 8, was just three years old when two separate  “sweat tests” designed to spot cystic fibrosis in children failed her at the Hampstead hospital in 2009.

A six-month delay in diagnosis meant she was not given crucial medication and treatment that can extend a life by many years. Cystic fibrosis sufferers rarely live beyond 35.

Libby’s mother Katie Fletcher, who lived until recently in Fairhazel Gardens, West Hampstead, said: “You can’t really put a price on what has happened and of course any amount would never be enough. But I’m just glad that we can start making memories while Libby is still well enough.

“We’re going to Disney World and the whole shebang. It’s time to turn her dreams into a reality. ”

Libby has been learning to swim so she can go in the water with dolphins at the Florida resort’s Sea World. “We can get her a trampoline because she likes that too,” added Ms Fletcher.

In 2009, Libby’s condition deteriorated over several months after classic symptoms of CF were not matched by test results at the Royal Free.

A Great Ormond Street Hospital consultant later discovered she had the condition and was in need of urgent and regular treatment.

In 2009, the Royal Free suspended all sweat testing and recalled patients for follow-up testing.

An internal investigation later found no other patients were affected by the problem, according to the hospital. Four years later, an £84,000 payout has been agreed.

The money – which is paid through a NHS compensation system and does not come directly out of the Royal Free budget – will be stored in a bank account that will be accessible to Libby on her 18th birthday and can be accessed, through a court order, by her mother if she needs to fund care needs.

Ms Fletcher, who is a carrier of the CF gene, said that Libby’s condition has worsened since 2009 and that now a “transplant” may be the only option.

According to the CF Trust, one in 25 people carries the CF gene.

One in every 25,000 babies is born with the condition but most parents only find out they have a child with CF when symptoms start to develop in early childhood. Lottie, Libby’s younger sister, does not have the condition.

Sweat tests were introduced in the 1950s after research showed carriers had high levels of salt in their system.

Libby’s salt levels were far higher than the level associated with the condition and should not have been missed.

A Royal Free spokeswoman said the hospital trust could not comment on the case until the agreed settlement is officially sealed at a final court hearing next month.

This article is courtesy of the Camden New Journal.

Outsourcing NHS services may leave negligence claims cover black hole

Fears have been expressed within political and legal circles that private companies taking on National Health Service contracts may struggle to secure sufficient cover to meet medical negligence claims.

In the past, successful claimants would have received a payout from the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, an indemnity fund managed by the NHS Litigation Authority. But the government’s decision to put portions of the NHS out to competitive tender following the Health and Social Care Act 2012 means a far greater number of NHS patients are now likely to be treated by private providers, which do not have the same indemnity arrangements in place.

Concerns over the issue prompted Jamie Reed MP to ask Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt: “What safeguards are in place to ensure private healthcare providers operating NHS contracts carry sufficient insurance indemnity to meet future claims for medical negligence made against them?”

Responding in parliament on Hunt’s behalf, Daniel Poulter, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Health, said the NHS standard contract required all contractors of NHS care “to hold and maintain adequate and appropriate indemnity arrangements”.

“The NHS Litigation Authority bears the full indemnity for private healthcare providers in cases of medical negligence, where providers are a paid-up member of an appropriate NHSLA scheme,” he added. “Private healthcare providers are also able to procure clinical negligence indemnity cover from the insurance market.”

Changes in secondary legislation have meant that, from April 2013, private healthcare providers can now be covered by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, if they make an annual contribution. But Post understands many are unhappy with the terms.

An industry source told Post: “The NHSLA told companies the rules of membership were going to be to sign up for three years and there was no price certainty around years two and three.”

Additional fees
 
On top of the annual fee, firms were also told they would have to pay an “exit fee” or procure commercial run-off cover to protect against future claims from the period of their membership of the scheme.

Laurence Vick, a medical negligence lawyer at law firm Michelmores, said: “The agreement is that firms will contribute to the NHS Litigation Authority fund, which provides indemnity to hospitals within the NHS. The nature and extent of that contribution is not clear, but we are further concerned at what happens after the provisional agreement with the NHSLA is over.

“From our experience it is usual for private healthcare providers to refuse to accept responsibility for negligence and choose to go to law – that’s one problem. But what if they aren’t properly insured at all?”

Philip Dearn, healthcare practice leader at Marsh, claimed there was no lack of appetite from insurers to underwrite this business and said the broker had been involved in procuring “a range of different options for private hospital operators that have elected to go with alternative insurance solutions”.

Alex Wakeley, class underwriter of medical malpractice at Lloyd’s insurer Marketform, was the only underwriter contacted by Post to confirm his organisation is insuring private sector companies working within the NHS.

However, in Vick’s view, any insurer that steps into the breach is playing a risky game. “There is no means by which any commercial insurer can assess the risks involved in performing surgery and providing clinical services – there is no data and many of the claims would be historic, dating back 10 years or more, with potential for cases coming 20 or more years later,” he said.

“For a commercial insurer to have to indemnify claims likely to arise from the Mid-Staffordshire inquiry, for example, would be catastrophic,” he added.

Despite the NHS delegating its responsibility, litigation could still be brought against the NHS on the basis that it has “a non-delegable duty of care”, Vick suggested.
He referred to the Independent Sector Treatment Programme that began in 2003.

Under the programme, private sector-owned treatment centres are contracted with the NHS to treat patients for elective procedures such as knee or hip-replacement surgery. But the system gave rise to a high number of claims, often due to poor communication between the NHS – which provided treatment leading up to an operation – and the private treatment centre that was contracted solely to undertake the operation.

Commenting on his own experience, Vick said: “We had many of those cases that were a disaster and in each of these cases we successfully sued the NHS. If the NHS hasn’t successfully delegated the liability and it gets sued, as taxpayers we need to know that the NHS can recoup these costs from the private companies.”

The NHSLA was unavailable for comment.

This article is courtesy of the Post Online.

NHS midwife struck off after her 'gross failure' caused a baby boy to be starved of oxygen during birth and later die

An experienced NHS midwife was struck off after making 'catastrophic mistakes' which led to the death of a baby boy.

A disciplinary hearing was told Julie Richards’ 'gross failure' caused baby Noah Tyler to be starved of oxygen during his birth.

Noah never recovered and died aged 10 months because of errors made during his birth at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff.

Noah’s mother, Colleen Tyler, 31, was also put in danger because Ms Richards failed to notice Noah’s raised heartbeat.

Ms Richards, a midwife for 13 years, was found guilty of misconduct by a medical disciplinary panel of the Nursery and Midwifery Council.

During the hearing the misconduct panel was told how the midwife had said Mrs Tyler ‘shouldn’t move around so much’ in the birthing pool and shouldn't ask if she should push - as she would know instinctively.

Mrs Tyler said: ‘I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t have anyone who was going to tell me.’

The panel was told by Mrs Tyler and her husband, Hywel Tyler, that an epidural had been repeatedly requested, but was not given.

Instead, Mrs Tyler spent three hours in a birthing pool. Unable to get comfortable, she spent much of the time sitting on her hands in an attempt to steady herself in the pool.

She said: ‘I didn’t want to get in the birthing pool. I said again and again that I wanted an epidural because the pain was that bad.

Ms Richards was also found by the pannel not to have recognised the significance of raised blood pressure in another patient and was accused of not maintaining records.

And in a third case, she was found not to have followed correct guidelines when booking a mother-to-be in for an induction.

The Nursery and Midwifery Council said Richards’ fitness to practise was impaired.

The disciplinary panel also found Ms Richards breached medical codes and practices, including treating patients with kindness, sharing information with patients, and gaining patient consent before treatment.

 Panel chairman Richard Davies said: 'The midwife’s inattention while treating three pregnant women was lamentable.

'We have considered all other available sanctions, but only a striking off order is suitable given the circumstances.'

Noah’s mother said after the hearing: 'She can’t hurt any other babies now. She can’t repeat what she’s done with us.'

An inquest in Cardiff on baby Noah, who was born in 2011, Ms Richards admitted she had made catastrophic mistakes.

Cardiff Coroner Mary Hassall told last year’s hearing: 'Noah and his mother suffered gross failure of basic medical attention. There were failures.

'What struck me very forcibly was that we might have been dealing with two deaths rather than one.'

Ms Hassall ruled Noah died as a result of natural causes contributed to by neglect.In her evidence, Mrs Tyler spoke of the pain of having lost her first-born son.

She said: ‘I feel cheated of my son, because he was robbed of the life and childhood that he had every right to have.
‘In this day and age and in a country that is so progressed - that level of care, or lack of care, should never happen. If this had happened to someone else, I wouldn’t believe something like this could happen.’

The Cardiff and Vale University Health Board publicly apologised and said it had reviewed its procedures as a result of the case.

Mrs Tyler and her husband Hywel, from Caerphilly, are suing the hospital for negligence.

The couple now have a 'happy and healthy' son called Joseph.

Ms Richards, who is now working as a carer in the Vale of Glamorgan, was unavailable to comment.

This article is courtesy of the Daily Mail.

Examples of possible pregnancy compensation cases

Finding out you are pregnant is the happiest moment in many people’s lives. However, it can also be nerve wracking and daunting and you rely on the skills and experience of the midwives and doctors whose care you are in. 

Unfortunately, every now and then mistakes can be made, and this can lead to a number of injuries to either the mother or baby. Under the right circumstances you may find that you have a case to claim for compensation.

Wrongful Birth

This term refers to a birth of a child with a birth defect that could have and should have been diagnosed early on in the pregnancy and would have given the option of termination rather than give birth to a physically or mentally disabled child.

Clinical Negligence during Labour

This is something that goes wrong during labour as the result of negligence committed by the midwife or doctor responsible for the delivery.

Pre-Eclampsia

This condition is due to a defect in the placenta and is easy to catch with regular antenatal tests and check-ups. However, when it is not caught it can lead to the death of both mother and baby.

Many more include:

• Uterine Rupture and Placental Abruption
• Cerebral Palsy
• Episiotomy and second or third degree tears
• Forceps or Ventouse Delivery
• Erb’s Palsy or Brachial Plexus Injuries
• Congenital Hip Dysplasia
• Maternal Diabetes or Gestational Diabetes

These are all examples of problems that can sometimes arise before or during labour and, if negligence can be found and proven, you may be able to claim for compensation. However, just because you or your child has suffered from one the medical conditions mentioned above doesn’t automatically qualify you to be in a position to make a claim. 

Furthermore, there are additional examples of pregnancy and birth injury cases that have not been included in this list. For more information and support on your claim, get in touch with a firm of medical negligence solicitors who can give you specific advice according to your case.

5 common pregnancy/birth injuries

Birth can be a very complicated medical process, with a high level of risk involved both to the mother and the baby. There are many factors with can potentially cause injury and these injuries can be temporary or permanent.

A few injuries that are experienced by the baby during birth are listed below:

1.    Caput Succedaneum: The intense swelling of baby’s scalp due to high presses against the cervix. This happens when the labor period is longer than usual. Also babies born with the help of vacuum extractions are more prone to this birth injury. The swelling of the head usually disappears within a few days, but if it persists then it needs to be consulted with the doctor.

2.    Fractures and dislocations: Fracture of the collarbone during delivery is very common. The bone usually heals within 10 days of the birth, but parents need to be advised as how to make sure the discomfort because of the injury in minimised and it is very important that no pressure is applied to the area. The pain will take some time to disappear, and medicine must be fed to the baby at timely intervals.

3.    Facial paralysis: If pressure is exerted on the facial nerves of the baby during delivery, then it can lead to facial paralysis. This can be noticed when the baby cries, one side might not show any movement. If the nerve is only bruised, then the paralysis will heal on its own within few weeks of the deliver. However if the nerve is damaged, then a surgery will follow to repair the damaged nerve.

4.    Sub Conjunctival Hemorrhage: This very common in babies. The blood vessel around the iris of the eyes gets broken resulting in redness around it. This disappears within a week or 10 days after delivery. This condition calls for no immediate attention.

5.    Cerebral Palsy: This is a group of conditions which occur during birth when the cerebral part of the brain is damaged, one cause being if the baby deprived of oxygen during delivery. Cerebral Palsy has varying degrees of severity, with some only suffering from reflexes while other children can have limited movement or control in the movement of their limbs.

Medical negligence case study: Laurence Ball

In May 2005, Laurence Ball contracted a chest infection. After several tests, the firefighter was told that he had a cancerous tumor in the upper left lobe of his lung. He was taken for surgery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where doctors removed his entire left lung.
 
The surgery was seven hours long. When Mr. Ball woke up, he was informed that there had been a mistake. He did not need chemotherapy because he did not have cancer. His lung had been removed unnecessarily.
 
“For the next few days I was really traumatized and in deep shock,” said Mr. Ball. “I was exhilarated to have survived the operation and then to be told that I didn't have cancer - I could not get my head around the words."
 
NHS Grampian acknowledged that Mr Ball’s procedure may not have been necessary, but claims it did not find incompetence or negligence in an internal investigation.
 
"The clinical course of action agreed for Mr Ball was arrived at following the review of all relevant information, test results, scans, x-rays etc, by a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians,” NHS Grampian said in a statement. “It was considered to be the appropriate action based on all this information.”
 
Mr Ball disagreed with the claim. “The impact of this on my life and my family is hard to imagine," he said. "I have lost everything - my job, my health and I have had years of what should have been a happy retirement stolen from me.
 
Mr Ball filed legal action and asked for compensation for medical negligence. Since the operation, he has suffered ongoing medical issues including a deadly collapsed lung. Because he was unable to work, he was also forced to sell his home.
 
After rejecting NHS Grantham’s initial offer to settle out of court, the former firefighter is seeking a six-figure sum in compensation. 

If you, or anyone you know, has been a victim of medical misdiagnosis you too can file a claim for compensation by completing a short Start a Claim form at the TRUE Medical Negligence website.

Does acquiring hospital infections count as medical negligence?

Typical infections are easy to treat with a course of antibiotics but there are certain hospital infections that have evolved to be particularly resistant, which makes them significantly harder to treat. These hard to treat infection, which are most commonly found in hospitals are known as super bugs and include MRSA and C Difficile amongst various others. There are certain patients that are more susceptible to contracting such infections such as the elderly, those with weakened immune systems, those using a drip and those with an open wound. 

When proper measures are taken to maintain an acceptable level of cleanliness then the risk of the infection being spread is dramatically decreased. Those who do contract a hospital infection during their stay may be eligible to claim for compensation on the grounds of medical negligence.

Causes of hospital infections

MRSA has had a lot of media exposure in the last few years and it’s now fairly common knowledge that by following proper hygiene protocols, the spread of common infections can be avoided. However, there are times when the system has failed and outbreaks have occurred and this could have been due to a number of reasons. 

Cleaning regimes, hand washing and sterilization of equipment should all take place regularly in order to avoid an outbreak. It’s also important to diagnose infections fast and treat them properly when someone does become infected. The longer a patient has an infection that is not known about, the longer they have to spread it to other people and, being in a hospital surrounded by the most vulnerable and high risk patients, makes it a very dangerous environment and hard to control. 

Nevertheless, if you can be sure that you or any of your loved ones became infected in a hospital or clinic, then it could be worth discussing your options with a personal injury solicitor.

Detroit doctor charged in $35M Medicare scam gave fake diagnosis, feds say

A Detroit-area doctor has been charged with bilking the government of tens of millions of dollars by deliberately misdiagnosing patients with cancer and illegally billing Medicare for the treatment.

Dr. Farid Fata will remain behind bars until at least Tuesday as a third federal judge considers whether or not to grant him bail. He was arrested last week on charges he ripped off Medicare for millions of dollars by giving chemotherapy to patients who didn't need it and diagnosing cancer when the illness wasn't apparent, MyFoxDetroit.com reported.

Fata owns Michigan Hematology Oncology, which has offices in Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills, Lapeer, Sterling Heights, Troy and Oak Park. The government says the clinics billed $35 million to Medicare over two years.

Fata earned about $24.3 million in drug infusion billings directly to Medicare, "more than any hematologist/oncologist in the state of Michigan during that time period," FBI agent Brian Fairweather wrote in the criminal complaint.

The criminal complaint quotes co-workers and former employees as saying dozens of people passed through the office each day, although Fata spent less than five minutes with each patient and hired doctors who may not have been properly licensed to practice medicine.

In one case, according to the site, a patient fell and hit his head at Fata's clinic but was told he needed chemotherapy before he could be taken to a hospital, according to the FBI. The man later died from the head injury. His name was not disclosed.

Fata’s attorney tells MyFoxDetroit.com the charges are bogus.

"The government has not retained an expert to give an opinion that there was a mistreatment or misdiagnosis or unnecessary tests given to any patient. These are just general allegations that may be coming from disgruntled employees," defense lawyer Christopher Andreoff said.

A magistrate judge had said Fata could be released from jail under strict conditions, but prosecutors appealed. They fear Fata will flee to his native Lebanon if released from jail, claiming he has access to millions of dollars to finance a flight.

Andreoff says Fata is a U.S. citizen and not a flight risk.

Fata "does not own a home in Lebanon, and since 2001 only traveled to Lebanon one time ... to see his ill father, who is 80 and suffers from severe heart and liver disease," Andreoff said in a court filing. He said his client "has no foreign bank accounts or liquid assets other than those in Michigan which were seized by the government.”

Detroit federal Judge Sean Cox is the third judge to look at the case. He said Friday he needs more information from both sides before holding a hearing Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report and this article is courtesy of Fox News.

Examples of past surgical errors

For most of us, the thought of going in for surgery is a scary one. The only thing that we have to hold onto is the notion that our doctor or surgeon is looking out for our best interests and he or she is a professional in his or her field. However, there are times when mistakes that could have and should have been avoided were in fact made, and this can result in complications during surgery, further injury or even death. Some of the examples of past surgical errors that have actually occurred are quite a scary thought. 

Some of them include:

• Not enough anaesthetic provided through the procedure (anaesthetic awareness)
• Damage to organs that should not have been affected during that particular surgical procedure (surgical error)
• Failed sterilisation operations that result in pregnancy
• A lack of replacement blood available
• A ruptured bowel
• Surgical equipment forgotten inside the body of the patient (never events)
• Nerve damage

Am I eligible to make a claim?

This list of claims that have been made in the past is quite shocking, but they are not the only consequences that can occur as a result of surgical errors. If you feel that you suffered from inadequate surgery or suffered some form of injury as a result of a surgical error, then you could certainly be eligible to make a claim and it is worth at least making an appointment with a personal injury solicitor. 

Most of the more reputable firms offer free consultation with no obligation of further action. Simply phone them and explain your case of surgical errors and they would be happy to look into it. As well as giving you advice about your particular case, they should be able to offer advice on the best ways of financing it so that money doesn’t become an issue later on.