Lawyer warns of clinical negligence claims

A CLINICAL negligence lawyer from Warrington has warned of the risk of compensation claims if patients – particularly the elderly – are discharged from hospital too soon.
Daniel Lee, clinical negligence expert at FDR Law, with offices in Warrington, Stockton Heath and Frodsham, issued the warning in the wake of reports of elderly and vulnerable patients across the country being sent home to free up hospital beds.
He said:  “Medical professionals have a duty of care towards their patients. However, providing the correct diagnosis and treatment are not the only actions clinicians must successfully complete to avoid being liable for medical negligence.
“Nearly a million NHS patients have been sent home during the night over the last four years, due to rising demand for beds and overcrowding in hospital wards.
“Many are elderly – some with dementia – and are sent home without the right support or sometimes even the correct medicine. If this happens, the person has not been given a safe discharge from hospital.
“The fact is, if a patient is sent home at a point in their treatment where this may be detrimental to their recovery, and this results in a deterioration in their condition which could have been prevented by a lengthier stay at hospital, clinicians could be facing a compensation claim.
“We see too many cases where the discharge of frail, vulnerable older people from hospital has gone horribly wrong because they don’t have the right support to cope on their own.
“If this has happened to you or a person you know, you should seek legal advice.”
The number of patients discharged from hospitals between 11pm and 6am has increased from 219,072 in 2012-13 to 252,261 in 2015-16, according to a freedom of information data from 89 of 154 hospital trusts.
The increase was higher in some hospitals, with some discharging as many as 10 per cent of their patients during the night.