Accident and Emergency negligence

A&E Departments are busy places and the average A&E department registers a new patient every 10 minutes, every hour of the day, every day of the year. It is not surprising, therefore, that sometimes patients feel that their treatment has been sub standard and make a medical negligence claim for compensation. Damages for Accident and Emergency negligence average about £15,000, and the total number of clinical negligence claims per hospital puts A&E in second place only to Obstetrics. Claims arising from emergency medicine are almost always against the hospital Trust rather than an individual healthcare provider.

In the past many Accident and Emergency Departments were staffed by junior doctors and locums without much input from senior medical staff but nowadays consultants in A&E are common place. However, junior doctors still make up the bulk of the work force and mistakes still happen. It is the responsibility of the Trust to provide adequate supervision for these doctors in training for it is important that they ‘learn on the job’. It is therefore not surprising that mistakes are made in A&E because relatively inexperienced doctors are expected to diagnose and treat numerous medical conditions, usually without consultation with a senior doctor.

The most common reasons for A&E negligence claims include;

• failure to diagnose and treat a fracture
• inappropriate or substandard treatment of fractures
• failure to perform and/or correctly interpret diagnostic blood tests
• failure to order X-rays or scans and/or to interpret them wrongly
• failure to recognise when someone is likely to harm himself
• failure to recognise the seriousness of a patient’s condition making the wrong diagnosis
• inadequate cleaning, suturing and dressing of wounds

British health care is generally of a high standard, but sometimes things can and do go wrong. If you have been injured due to incompetence or lack of care or poor judgment you may be able to claim compensation. JMW Medical Negligence Solicitors clinical negligence claims team is one of the most experienced and respected in the United Kingdom and two of our partners are members of The Law Society