Advice on No Win, No Fee claims for NHS drug errors

NHS drug errors can leave patients suffering serious harm, and they can also cause fatalities. Even the smallest error with a dosage or a prescription could be the difference between life and death for some, which is why the government are aiming to drastically reduce what they have labelled as “appalling levels of harm and death” related to drug errors.

We advise and represent patients who have suffered harm because of NHS drug errors. From incorrect prescription dosage claims to clients being prescribed the wrong course of treatment… If you’ve suffered harm due to an NHS drug error, you may have a claim for medical negligence.
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Doctors concerned people addicted to prescription drugs may not be receiving enough help

America is currently suffering with what is widely reported as an “opioid crisis” off the back of what some have alleged is a simple case of over-prescribing medications to patients for an array of ailments that can be treatable by other means. In the UK, there are concerns that doctors are relying on prescription drugs too much to treat people with ailments or issues they could use alternative help for, and the upshot is patients getting addicted to such medication.

Whether it’s a case that the dangers of such medications need to be better explained or better controlled, or where it’s down to the need to prescribe less medication – or both – doctors are worried that the lack of help for patients hooked on drugs is putting lives at risk.
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NHS pushing patient waiting times to three months may see rise in incidents, lawyers warn

New waiting times for routine operations in some parts of the country could see patients having to wait up to a minimum of three months before their procedure takes place.

Hip operations and cardiac procedures are among those that fall within the new lengthier patient waiting times, which could lead to complications arising as patients have to wait longer for treatment.

Patient waiting times average is around seven and a half weeks, but new measures introduced in Lincolnshire mean patients may be waiting almost twice as long in efforts to cut costs as lawyers warn that the new measures may see incidents increase.
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The worrying trend of data breaches will not help the NHS funding situation

Data breaches are practically the new norm, and with healthcare sector breaches at the top of the pile, we have a lot of reasons to be worried as a nation relying on a public-funded healthcare system.

For the private healthcare systems like they have in the U.S., the liability and the costs can fall on a private organisation or their insurance. In the U.K., the taxpayer picks up the tab.

The increasing numbers of healthcare sector data breaches is not helping the NHS funding situation at all.
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NHS statistics say we are obese, sedentary and drug-reliant

According to the latest report from our National Health Service, we are statistically obese; spend way too much time sat down; and take far too many prescribed drugs.

So, just to reiterate, many of us overeat, barely do enough exercise, unless it’s walking towards the fridge and back which then creates health problems that leads to us apparently swallowing prescribed pills like they’re mints and thus contributing towards the nation’s growing drug-dependency problem.

Much like the reported opioid crisis in America, the U.K. may not be far behind a similar drugs crisis either…
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NHS pushed into upgrading its monitoring system following avoidable death

A 42-year-old woman was admitted to East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust hospital on a Friday evening with a liver abscess and sepsis. Her condition rapidly deteriorated over the weekend and she tragically died two days later of multiple organ failure.

This death was confirmed to have been entirely preventable.

This incident was apparently the last straw for the Trust’s critical-care lead, Dr Kate Murray. Prior to this incident, Murray was unhappy with an abundance of problems with how the hospital take patient observations, and as a result of the incident, she sought to do something about it.
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NHS Trust sent letters to terminally ill patients advertising private clinics

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has been criticised for sending marketing letters to terminally ill patients advertising private clinical services.

The Trust reportedly used patients’ medical data to send hundreds of marketing leaflets advertising a private clinic, Nova Healthcare.
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Potential risk of harm to hundreds of NHS patients because of undelivered medical mail

Back in February 2017, reports revealed that hundreds upon thousands of medical correspondences never made it to healthcare providers. The contractor hired by the NHS to send medical information between health institutions and providers reportedly lost around 709,000 pieces of data.

Truly staggering…

The information included patient medical records and test results. At the time the atrocity was revealed, it was suspected that 500 patients may have been harmed as a result of missing key medical information. Now, the number is over 1,700.
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Investigation into alleged unfair pricing of drugs and medicines supplied to the NHS

The pharmaceutical sector has been investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for suspected breaches of competition legislation for alleged unfair pricing. The allegations of unfair pricing could have a severe knock-on effect on the NHS which is already in a vulnerable state.

The investigation into the unfair pricing was opened in October 2016. A large degree of scrutiny and information gathering is usually completed before the CMA will come to a definitive conclusion as to whether the pharmaceutical company have breached competition laws – namely Chapter II of the Competition Act (CA) and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The key issue here though is whether unfair pricing is needlessly costing the NHS too much. If so, the repercussions for this – given the state of our NHS – could be significant.
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Worldwide ransomware attack brings NHS services to a standstill

The NHS has suffered as a result of a “large-scale hack” across the globe that hit some 99 countries in total.

The malware message is demanding ransoms from hospitals! A message appearing on hospital screens says that doctors will need to cough up if they want to save their files. The big issue here is that this causes a wider problem for patients across the country as hospitals are forced to use their ‘back-up’ plans, and services are being seriously reduced.

Real people’s lives are in danger here.
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NHS’ New Year’s glitch that may have caused patient’s death

The NHS and London Ambulance Service suffered technical problems that caused delays which may have caused a patient’s death over the New Year period.

A separate inquiry was launched into whether the technical problems was a contributory factor to a patient’s death. The crashing of a computer meant that control centre employees had to use the old-fashioned method of pen and paper to take down emergency 999 calls for approximately 5 hours, which has been linked to the death.
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“NHS failings caused avoidable deaths” – An internal report showed many mothers and babies tragically died due to ‘clinical errors, poor staff attitudes and chronic shortages’

According to a recent NHS report, numerous mothers and babies tragically died at NHS hospitals in Manchester and Oldham.

The medical review was carried out in June by the maternity director, Deborah Carter, at the Pennine Acute Hospital Trusts, which operates North Manchester General and Royal Oldham hospitals. The report highlighted that mothers and babies were dying due to ‘clinical errors, poor staff attitudes and chronic shortages’. Ms Carter highlighted that negligence caused a ‘string of avoidable deaths and long-term injuries caused by failures over many years’.
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