Pressures on Shropshire Hospital Termed “A Risk to Life”

In recent news, There have been pressures on the Royal Shrewsbury and Telford’s Princess Royal hospitals which have been branded “a risk to life” after critical incident status was declared last week, with major delays for patients needing treatment.

The trust overseeing the hospital- Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) couldn’t provide priority services despite the “exceptionally high levels of demand”. The trust said that the source of the pressures was the ongoing impacts of the coronavirus and “issues in discharging medically fit patients”.

This is however not acceptable as it has been claimed that a 95-year-old woman waited 14 hours in an ambulance outside A&E that morning leaving her relatives “very distressed and confused”.

A spokesperson of the trust has said that they have continued to ensure that patients were given priority in line with clinical urgency and that those waiting in ambulances were accessed and treated by medical professionals while also acknowledging that it was not the way they wanted to deliver care.

The incident last Friday was so critical that staff was redeployed to help in the emergency department, however, the measure was stood down on Saturday.

Ms Gill George from Defend Our NHS has said that the care provided by the trust was not adequate and fair to the patients who were made to wait several hours before accessing urgently needed treatment.

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, also added that it was not acceptable for people in Shropshire to be left in such a situation which she termed unsustainable. She also acknowledged that it poses risk not only to people’s health but in the most extreme circumstances, risk to life.

Accident and Emergency Negligence Claims are made by individuals who have suffered negligence while at the A&E department of the hospital. Where the A&E department failed in their duty to provide urgent and adequate care to the patients leaving them unattended to and putting their health and lives in serious jeopardy, medical negligence claims can be made.

Most persons brought to the A&E department are in critical condition requiring urgent intervention and when this is not done, they can suffer avoidable injury or complications.

In 2018/2019 year for instance, 13% (1409) of all NHS negligence claims made were against the Accident and Emergency department. This was the highest number of negligence claims against a single department that year.

Furthermore, it received the second highest compensation payout paid by the NHS for claims made against any department. This was £422 million which accounted for 9% of the total compensation payout.

Negligence That Can Lead To Accident And Emergency Claims include;

• Delays in attending to patients due to shortage of staff
• Misdiagnosis due to pressure (this can be late or incorrect diagnosis)
• Delays in commencing treatment due to high demand
• Errors in drug prescription or administration
• Failing to conduct the appropriate tests or scans for a patient
• Failing to make appropriate and timely referrals to specialists
• Incorrect interpretation the results of tests, X-rays or scans leading to wrong treatment
• Delays is scheduling and carrying out lifesaving operations
• Discharging a patient before it is due as a result of influx of more patients

How Can We Help

We are medical negligence solicitors who specialize in cases such as these. Our highly experienced solicitors will ensure that you don’t only get justice but that the claims are settled as soon as possible and you are compensated adequately.

We offer free consultation sessions where we listen to our clients tell us about their ordeals, carefully evaluate the situation and offer proper legal advice. We also go ahead to help our clients provide the needed documents to prove their claims and ensure they get the best legal representation throughout the claims process.

Additionally, we can also secure Interim Payments which can be needed in complex cases which may linger so that our clients wouldn’t have to suffer financial distress but will be able to access the right medical care and get special equipment as may be required for recovery or to help with day to day activities.

Our accident and emergency claims are undertaken on a No Win No Fee basis which allows our clients to make claims without having to worry about legal fees.

Reach out to us today by either filling out our Online Free Claims Assessment Forms or calling our helplines.