NHS Admin Blunder

According to a report by a BBC health correspondent on 27th June 2017, more than 1700 patients have been put at risk due to an NHS administrative blunder. These patients may have been harmed due to the fact that thousands of patient records in England were left to pile up in a warehouse. The number may rise beyond 1700 patients as only two thirds of the 700,000 sets of notes found had been checked. This could include cancer test results not having been passed on to GPs.

The National Audit Office also said that there were serious questions to answer about the handling of the incident.

This calls into question the willingness of the NHS to own up to mistakes that have been made. It is reported that the company that was responsible for the mix up was part owned by the Department of Health. It was meant to pass on documents that had either been incorrectly addressed or needed re-routing because the patient had moved to a new GP surgery.

The company had become aware of the risk to patients in January 2014 but senior managers didn’t tell the Government nor NHS England for another two years.

The Government have been proposing a new system for the dealing with injuries sustained at birth of a child in what has been described as a rapid redress scheme. These injured individuals could be very severely brain-damaged. However, if the same lack of openness and lack of candour were to be demonstrated in this proposed rapid redress scheme, there are real fears that many brain injured children and their families would never get the compensation that not only do they deserve but also need to be able to cope with the injuries that have been sustained through negligence in the handling of the birth and access early rehabilitation.

At Alsters Kelley, we have a specialist clinical negligence department headed by Haidee Vedy who would be happy to help families and individuals who feel that they have been let down by an administrative or surgical error on the part of the NHS.

Haidee can be contacted on 01926 356025 or by email at haidee.vedy@alsterskelley.com. Either Haidee or one of her experienced colleagues will be happy to assist in you obtaining the reassurance and/or compensation you are wanting to achieve.