Have you, or a family member, been the victim of a medical error at Hemel Hempstead Hospital?

If the answer is yes, you could be entitled to claim compensation. But for the best chances of a successful claim, you’re going to need an accredited specialist medical negligence solicitor. And at the time of writing, not only is there no such solicitor in Hemel Hempstead, but there’s no such specialist anywhere in the whole of Hertfordshire.

But we can help – the specialist team of accredited medical negligence solicitors here at Bonallack and Bishop [the law firm who run this website] can help you win that compensation.

The statistics make it clear how few genuinely independently accredited specialists there are – out of over 100,000 solicitors nationwide, just 180 have been accredited by the other leading panel for medical negligence solicitors [for details see below] and our team is led by one of them. And another member of the team, prior to qualification as a solicitor, was a highly experienced nurse.

What’s more we regularly run cases in Hertfordshire.

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD HOSPITAL – A HISTORY OF RECENT MEDICAL ERRORS

Hemel Hempstead Hospital sees over 100,000 patients every year, and thankfully most of them receive excellent treatment. But unfortunately there have been a series of worrying mistakes made at the hospital recently,and indeed throughout Hertfordshire, some of which have given rise to medical negligence claims.

Here are just four causes of real concern.

• Latest CQC inspection report dated 10 September 2015
  The recent report by independent hospital regulator, the Care Quality Commission is not good news for local people. In short, the overall conclusion was that the hospital “requires improvement”.Of the four main areas looked at by the report, where there was enough information available to the sea QC, three out of four were described as substandard. In particular they found the following; 
  •  Safety – Requires improvement
  •  Speed of Response –  Requires improvement
  • Leadership – Inadequate

The only good news was that overall, the level of care was described as good.

However things got no better when the CQC went into more detail, looking at particular services. Of the only two services where there was enough information, both outpatients and A&E were both described as “requiring improvement”.

All very worrying if you live in Hemel Hempstead and require medical care from your local hospital.

• However sadly the latest 2016 report was nothing new.
  Respected hospital statistics website Dr Foster had issued a major report, covering patient deaths in NHS Trusts in England between April 2012 and March 2013. The report revealed that 16 NHS Trusts had higher death rates than would be expected among patients, and others performed badly on other factors which may contribute to patient deaths. One of the poorly performing Trusts was West Hertfordshire Hospital NHS Trust, which is responsible for three hospitals – Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead General Hospital.

Dr Foster looked into a range of hospital statistics such as a raw measure of how many people died during their hospital stay, how many died post-surgery, the numbers of patients how died within 30 days of being discharged from hospital and the deaths among low-risk patients who would have ordinarily be expected to survive. All of these figures showed that 10 hospital Trusts have one or more individual sites which have a death rate which is higher than the average for that particular Trust area.

• Then in January 2015,  West Hertfordshire NHS Trust had to apologise for a horrible error. A man, after he had been informed that his father had died in hospital, was taken to seize father’s body – to pay his last respects. However some sort of mistake occurred and the man was actually shown the body of not his father – but of another patient who had recently died. The trust refused to identify which of the three hospitals they run was responsible for the error.

• This followed a series of earlier errors where 810 suspected cancer patients were discharged, between January 2010 and November 2013, without having been seen. It is believed that at least one person died directly as a result of this failure and the others all needed to have their case reviewed. The Government’s Care Quality Commission has been looking into these failures.

Even Hemel Hempstead hospital’s own Facebook page fails to inspire confidence. At the time of writing this article, the latest post from a patient read as follows:

“There does not appear to be any one at Hemel Hospital or within the trust who knows how to deal with complaints , or is it that they just cannot be bothered ?”

Unsurprisingly, in 5 months, no one from the hospital has bothered answering this post on their own website.

Doesn’t give you much confidence does it?

WHY APPOINTING A SPECIALIST MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SOLICITOR IS SO IMPORTANT

Click here to find out more about why you need a specialist medical negligence solicitor – and how you can identify one.

Click here to find out what a medical negligence solicitor does – and why genuine expertise is so important.

VICTIM OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE AT HEMEL HEMPSTEAD HOSPITAL? CALL US NOW

Strict time limitation periods apply to all medical negligence claims – so don’t delay getting in touch with us.

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For FREE initial advice and a FREE 1st appointment from specialist Medical Negligence specialists you can trust:

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Are you the victim of medical negligence at Watford General Hospital?

We can help you claim compensation. Here at solicitors Bonallack and Bishop, we have a team of accredited medical negligence specialists – and you really do need an expert when it comes to running a medical negligence claim.

Unfortunately, not only are there currently no accredited medical negligence specialists in Watford – but there are that none anywhere in Hertfordshire.

But don’t worry – we can help. We regularly run cases in Hertfordshire.

So for FREE no strings attached initial phone advice – call us now on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544

The statistics make it clear how few genuinely independently accredited specialists there are – out of over 100,000 solicitors nationwide, just 180 have been accredited by the other leading panel for medical negligence solicitors [for details see below] and our team is led by one of them. And another member of the team, prior to qualification as a solicitor, was a highly experienced nurse.

What’s more, we regularly run cases in Hertfordshire.

WATFORD GENERAL HOSPITAL – A CONTINUING SERIES OF SERIOUS BASIC ERRORS

Watford General Hospital is a big district general hospital with a full range of services,  approximately 600 beds and it provides care for around 500,000 people in Hertfordshire. The maternity service alone is one of the largest in southeast England and delivers around 6000 babies every year.

But the last few years have sadly seen what appears a never-ending series of major failures and medical errors at the hospital. Amongst the more notable problems have been the following;

• Perhaps most seriously, September 2015 saw the NHS trust in charge of Watford General Hospital put into what is referred to as “special measures” after an inspection by Government health watchdog the Care Quality Commission [CQC]. The report pulled no punches – as well as calling for big improvements, services provided by the hospital were rated by the CQC as “inadequate”. Amongst the more worrying disclosures in the report were serious failings in the quality of patient care, failure to learn the lessons of previous mistakes,  long delays for emergency patients turning up at A&E – and it was noted in general that many facilities were in such a bad state of repair that they were “a potential risk to staff and visitors” – and perhaps most remarkably a complete “lack of a safety culture”.

• But the September 15 report was nothing new. Earlier in January 2014, an earlier unsatisfactory CQC report found the hospital requiring action in 5/6 categories – including something as basic as the “care and welfare of people who use services” -and “cleanliness and infection control” As a result, it’s hardly surprising there are been many individual instances of failures at the hospital including:
  • The premature death of a Hemel Hempstead postman’s when he was misdiagnosed with a chest infection by hospital staff. The 61-year-old man was, in fact, suffering from far more serious bronchial pneumonia. Tragically he passed away just six hours after arriving at Watford General Hospital
  • The death of two cancer patients at the hospital after a failure to give them follow-up appointments, breaking basic NHS rules. An internal investigation concluded that this meant the diagnosis of their cancer was delayed and may have contributed to their death.

VICTIM OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE IN WATFORD? CALL OUR EXPERTS NOW

For FREE initial advice and a FREE 1st appointment from specialist Medical Negligence specialists you can trust:

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With vomiting and diarrhoea, Oliver Blockley was given a 95% probability of survival when he was taken to hospital. Despite this, the four-year-old youngster died after Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire made a total of 28 blunders in managing his care.

Medics incorrectly diagnosed the youngster with gastroenteritis, a stomach virus which antibiotics cannot manage, and as a consequence Oliver was not supplied with the drug that could have cured him. Oliver actually had an invasive form of sore throat bacteria called Strep A, which a simple blood test would have been able to pick up.

Eventually dehydration set in as Oliver was not given important fluids. Septic shock took hold of his body, he turned grey, and he ultimately sustained a fatal cardiac arrest just hours after his arrival. Jennifer, his devastated mother, said she was at first “denied information” and told that Oliver had stomach bug and he would be all right. She learned later that her son had essentially a 95% possibility of surviving, had the medics acted quickly.

As of 2013, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust was put into special measures. It has now apologised to the family and are poised to pay out a five figure compensation award, accepting 28 individual counts of negligence.

When Ms Blockley took her son to Stoke Mandeville’s A&E departments in October 2011, she was originally told to return home to Thame, Oxfordshire, and to provide him with fluids. She adamantly believed that Oliver’s condition was more extreme and that he continued to stay at the hospital. Irrespective of blood tests disclosing that he was drastically dehydrated, and was heading for septic shock, doctors rejected the idea of administering antibiotics or give him fluids.

A quick heart rate and fast breathing (symptoms of septic shock) were missed by the nurses and doctors during the course of the evening. In fact, Oliver was not monitored at all between 8 PM and 1 AM. Even though nurses noted his dilated pupils and grey colouring, doctors showed up too late and he died as a result of cardiac arrest. Only 30 minutes preceding his death did the doctors finally give him antibiotics. Following his death, nurses still kept to their story, informing Oliver’s mother that he had a tummy bug and not streptococcal.

This is yet another upsetting scenario where the NHS simply did not accept their mistakes prior to legal action and a medical negligence claim being taken, putting the family through more stress in what was an already extremely distressing time. An independent expert review has been commissioned by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

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How mortality rates should be calculated is a hotly debated question in the medical world and Dr Foster’s latest reports will make sure that it remains to be. According to their latest findings 13 hospital trusts have recorded higher than expected mortality indicator scores –  and the results from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham give most cause for concern.

These statistics are a key feature of Dr Foster’s annual reports on the subject; an NHS trust must fail in 2 or more of the following areas to be flagged up.

• Deaths after surgery

• Deaths in low-risk conditions

• Site based HSMR [the hospital standardised mortality ratio]

• Summary hospital-level mortality indicator

The 13 poorly performing NHS trusts named

Out of the 28 NHS hospital trusts that Dr Foster featured in their reports, the 13 who reported poor mortality scores were:

• Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust

• West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust

• Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust

• United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust

• University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trusts [which runs Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital]

• East Sussex Healthcare Trust

• Heart of England Foundation Trust

• Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust

• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Foundation Trust

• Medway Foundation Trust

• North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust

• Mid Cheshire Hospitals Foundation Trust

• North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust

The fact that 13 trusts returned higher than average results is alarming, but it is Birmingham Foundation Trusts results that will draw the most concern amongst medical governing bodies. They stand out as the worst amongst the 13, as they posted the worst failures in 3 of the 4 marking categories. On top of that none of the trusts listed above had a lower than expected rate in any of the areas judged. Dr Foster’s reports as a whole won’t make pleasant reading for NHS officials, especially at a time in which the organisation is under scrutiny.

However the NHS has often questioned Dr Foster’s reports on mortality rates, with their reliability and accuracy being debatable. However, given the clear culture of refusing to admit mistakes that seems prevalent in the health service, a culture that has been clear displayed in the recent series of medical negligence scandals, and is very familiar to experienced medical negligence lawyers, this response and the NHS is hardly surprising .

What’s more, a team led by Sir Bruce Keogh (NHS England medical director), has conducted their own investigation into the performance of 4 of the 13 trusts. The 4 trusts in question were:

•  Medway Foundation Trust

•  North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust

• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospital Trust

• United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

As a further response to the concerning Dr Foster report, NHS England will be launching a study into mortality rates, avoidable deaths and how they relate to each other. Lord Darzi and Nick Black will be running the study, with many hoping that the results will provide the NHS with new measures based upon clinical case notes. Let’s hope that rather than arguing that the stats simply are not accurate, the NHS tries to ensure that all hospitals consistently adopt good medical practice – which the best hospitals have long taken on board, and which the highly reputable Dr Foster team at University College London identifies and promotes.

Victim of medical negligence at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital? Call us now

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Update – Tameside Hospital fails again – In 2014, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 2014, interviewed almost 40,000 adults who attended Accident and Emergency departments

The worst Accident and Emergency department in England and Wales was identified as Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust. The hospital was put into special measures over a year ago over rising concerns about high death rates and failures in care. Clearly the problems remain

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that 11 hospital trusts will be put under special measures due to their poor performance whilst another three have been warned that they will joint the list if care quality does not drastically improve.

A recent review found that that the issues at the hospital were so deep-rooted that serious and immediate action had to be taken. Bad management, problems with staffing and high death rates were revealed but Hunt stressed in his statement to the House of Commons that he believed the hospitals would improve. Updates on the hospitals will be made publicly available and the most dangerous procedures have been stopped for the time being.

The 14 trusts were investigated after the Keogh review revealed that they had scored badly in terms of deaths in hospitals and deaths within 30 days of being released. The figures found at these hospitals were then compared with the statistics for trusts serving similar demographics

This does not necessarily prove that medical errors are being made as was the case at Mid Staffordshire Hospital because the only way to prove that is to trawl through the notes of each and every patient. However, it shows that action must be taken and Mr Hunt has clearly seen the need to act quickly, highlighting some of the following problems found by investigators:

• Overworked staff

• Unanswered complaints

• Inadequate staffing levels

• Issues (such as an increase in the number of still births) not being reported to the hospital board

• Lack of maintenance e.g. of operating theatres

• Patients being left unattended in corridors for long periods

The hospitals placed under special measures recorded the highest death rates over the last three years and given the uproar over the Stafford Hospital revelations the NHS had to act.

The three hospitals under further investigation are:

• The Colchester University NHS Foundation Trust

• The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust

• Blackpool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The following 11 are now under special measures:

• North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust

• Medway NHS Foundation Trust.

• Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

• Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

• George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust

The findings have been met with shock by the patient charity Action Against Medical Accidents. Frankly, the fact that the hospitals have only been investigated now is a travesty and should have happened 12 months ago. However, it is consistent with recent NHS efforts to try and hide failings which in turn has placed patients at risk and allowed bad practices to continue. Sadly, many people have lost their lives in the time it has taken for these hospitals to be properly investigated.

For medical negligence advice from solicitors you can trust, call us now

If you or a family member has been the victim of clinical negligence you deserve compensation for the pain suffering and financial loss you have endured. Our clinical negligence solicitors could help you claim, so:

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