how do I sue the nhs

[posh123]

Hi can anyone tell me how I would go about sueing the nhs for negligence, I am enquiring for my mum who has just lost her partner. One of the points is the staff placed an iv in his muscle instead of a vein which resulted in his arm becoming extremely swollen and painful, the second is the drain going into his liver came out and they didn't put it back in therefore all the muck didn' t come out it just went straight back inside him. He died shortly after this.

[campbellking]

Posh, are you sure that the NHS was responsible for his death? Not to put too fine a point on it, if you're getting to the stage where you need a drain in your liver, then you are profoundly unwell. The IV that you're talking about may well have been sited correctly originally but then 'tissued' which commonly happens where there is difficulty gaining access (especially again where patient is unwell and veins start to collapse).
Your hospital will have a 'PALS' service which is your first point of call with regards registering a complaint. You may be better discussing the case with the team who looked after him as well before you go throwing money at solicitors.

[themas]

Contact ICAS:
http://www.cppih.org/icas.html

They can help you make a complaint and maybe discuss with you the pros and cons of trying to get compensation.

Compensation is not always money grabbing (although I agree a lot of payouts are outrageous). Say a married breadwinner with a young family died through hospital negligence. There is - in my view - a reasonable case for saying compensation should be paid to make sure the family do not then suffer financially in a way they would not have done had he/she lived.

[bednobs]

you have been given some very good advice in the last few posts. Either contact icas, or the hospital complaints system. there may be things you dont know that contributed to the death, and the case will be thoroughly investigated, either directly with the complaints or with the help of icas. This will give you a good idea whether there was any negligence and how successful a claim could be. this could save you valuable money in solicitors fees. If you dont want to use this sysyem then your first approach would be to a solicitor.
if i were you, i wouldnt mention the sueing part if you go to complaints, because then they wont investigate if there is a civil action going on

[tigwig]

I couldn't help but read your question because I personally am going through just this at the moment. It is too long to go into details but my family are coming to the end of the NHS complaints department after nearly a year and are planning to sue after the negligent death of my mum in law. It's ok for people to say not to do it but until you have experienced real negligence I don't think you can comment. No amount of money will bring my wonderful mum in law back but it will take a tiny bit of the pain away given that she knew what they had done to her before she died and wanted us to sue so we could hopefully get a bit of financial security for her beloved grand children. Time will tell how my situation will end up. With yours contact the complaints dept of the hospital and they will help you through it. Also when you sue the money does come from insurance companies so when people say it could have paid a nurses wage instead they are wrong

[Lucy Thomas]

Unless your mother in law was the chief provider for her grandchildren then I can't see any court making an award in that respect. Claims are usually settled on the basis of providing lifelong care for those permanently injured by the wrong treatment or where the deceased had dependants.

[tigwig]

can't see us being able to make a claim? why are you a expert in the field? you know nothing about me or my claim and I never asked for your thoughts or opinions so please butt out. I have told my story as a believe it may be of interest to posh123 not for you Lucy Thomas to pass any comment on.

[Lucy Thomas]

If you don't want anyone to comment on it then don't post your personal business on a PUBLIC forum.

When will they learn.

[meglet]

When will they learn?, Lucy.

[Lucy Thomas]

No. Because this is a rhetorical statement not requiring an answer.

Don't get clever with me Sonny.

[meglet]

That's rather rich don't you think?

It is permissable but not considered good grammar.

[sqad617]

Wow, quite a lot of emotion here. The NHS, staff and doctors are not and should not be above the law. If there is negligence then there should be some investigation. We do not know the medical condition of the patient and we do not know if a post mortem comfirmed the cause of death. Until those factors are established then any further comments are of little value.

[tigwig]

my point was Lucy, that I didn't ask any questions, this is not my thread, so didn't expect any comments you were just butting in with your opinion which is as usual completely wrong. As I said, you know nothing about my situation so are not really in a position to comment

[bednobs]

pfft, if people were limited to only reply on threads where they know something of the situation, then there would be no answerbank with the possible exception of buenchico, who knows everything about everything. in fact it wouldn't surprise me too much if he popped up here and gave you some great advice because he used to work in a solicitors, or NHS complaint,s or even used to be a doctor!
Anyway,you cant say who can and cant comment on things that you write. I'm sure Possh123 is big enough to realise advice is just that - advice. The great thing about advice is you can take it or leave it.

[posh123]

Thankyou everyone for your comments, this is a very difficult topic and everyone will have something to say on the matter, so thankyou all for taking time out to post. It was my mums partners wish for her to make a complaint as he knew he would die after they made the mistake with the drain. I just wanted to find some information out for her as I know nothing about it.

[XXAlwaysLovx]

My son died from workers at nhs hospital, knowone knows the pain you feel when losing a child i have thought of taking the nhs to court to stop this happening to other mums and dads and help me cover the costs of everything i had to pay out! but its so hart breaking and long winded its not worth it!! i know it wont bring him back but it helps, and thats what people need so if it teaches the nhs to get off their backsides and sort it out im all for it!!!

[katieosullivan]

I have no idea why anyone would ever sue the NHS. we're so lucky to have the service and the people who want to take already short suplies of money from them are only going to make things worse for future patients. Drs and nurses etc do their best to help patients. however, unfortunatly mistakes are made sometimes they are humans and we all make mistakes from time to time. Its very sad when we loose a loved one but its life its happens all the time. I personally believe that the government should not allow cases to be filed against the NHS. By sueing the NHS you are well and truly shooting your self in the foot. its tax payers money

[samste1964]

my daughter had my first grandchild taken away for 11months because they (social services) said she had shaken him after all the medical evidence came back they said it was a birth related injury(external hydracphalus)we asked the midwife when he came out what was wrong with his head as it looked large and she told us not to worry it would go down his head wasnt measured for 3 months till we took him to the hospital as he wasnt verywell and then it all started with the police etc,the police officer involved in child protection for 26 years said had er had a case like it we are not bothered about money but what we went through was the worse thing you could imagin and all the mistakes from the hospital,midwife,doctors,and health visitors,who never noticed anythink wrong he never even had his head measured on his 6 to 8 week check and somebody should be held responsible

[lenny_the_leopard]

Lets get some issues straight.
1. it doesn't matter how hard people work - negligence is negligence. How would you feel about a really hard working pilot that could not land your plane?
2. Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away. Should the Doctor who missed baby P's broken back still be practising because they work hard ? The only way to get the NHS interesting in fixing things is to threaten leagal action.
3. Talking to the NHS first will only get you the standard response - "we are sorry." If you push the issue, you get the upgraded response - "we are very sorry." But note that they won't fix your problem.
4. The NHS might be overloaded with managers, but this is not the cause of the problems. A bad service is a bad service.
3.

[Erniered]

I have a tumour in my arm, I have been seeing a consultant in a certain hospital where i was referred to by my gp, my consultant was more than happy to take me on. I had surgery and my tumour returned. My consultant told me that the only treatment for this was surgery as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and drugs do not work on this kind of tumour. He said the only thing to do was wait it out, he said these tumours can stop growing by themselves and this is what he thought would happen. He sent me away for 6 months which i thought was a long time, and then again sent me away for 3 months, this went on for a year. I told him how much pain I was in, his response was "im not suprised" but did he give me pain relief...no. That was left for me to sort out. At my last scan he told me that it just simply got too big, im going to lose my arm, theres no way it can be saved, not only that but now its in my body and my life is at risk because i will never be rid of it...he then said "we will see you in 3 months". Because of the pain im in I have had to leave work for a while (a professional job in the local government) and now im struggling to get by. The stress levels are unreal as i try to support my daughter but im in that much pain i physically cannot drive or work. I asked for a second opinion, they referred it to london who wouldnt comment, the said they wernt specialists in this cancer to couldnt help, they referred me to somewhere else. I will get to my point..i have now found out that this could of been treated. Radiotherapies are successful on this tumour, and to stop it regrowing there is a medication that kills the growth. So many people have been cured with a mixture of treatment and nobody is ever left...its too late for me, its so big that its on my nerve and slowly my arm is disabling, i can no longer use it properly. They are going to try radiotherapy but we fear its already too late...I AM going to sue. I have suffered at the hands of the NHS and although now theyre helping me I am disabled and I didnt need to be...Now all of yuo who have posted you dont understand why anyone would sue, please read my story and imagine the stress ive felt, the sleepless nights with bills coming in, the loss of earnings, not being able to dress my child properly or myself...yes i do deserve compensating, my life will never ever be the same...if you havent been through something like this you have no room to comment although if i hadnt been through it I would advise someone like myself to sue

[animi]

Hi,

Questioning the motive is a bit funny and a bit disgusting I`m afraid. It is everyone own right to decide how to cope with grief. Although money does not help is cheap line indeed. It cannot bring anyone back but can give comfort through the grieving process. Help with the expenses of funeral etc. And MOSTLY can give a hint of Justice to the person in pain. If they made a mistake they are responsible for it. So suing is appropriate. There are many companies do it for you lawyers etc.

As a sideline I think NHS is crap. Frankly UK has some good health care if you have cancer or some other life threatening illness. But mostly British healthcare is way below other countries. I lived in: USA, Hungary, Estonia, Germany, Finniland and UK and the worst care i experienced here without any doubt. I fly to Hungary in a few weeks for health care treatment as I cannot receive any proper care here. And I am not the only one so sue the .........ds.