Suing A Nursing Home For Negligence

Suing a nursing home for negligence means that you are taking legal actions against the management of the nursing home or the staff responsible for failing to provide adequate care for your elderly, weak or vulnerable loved one who was in their custody. To do this, you need to reach out to your nursing or care home negligence solicitors to advise you accordingly about the claims process.

When making lawsuits against nursing homes, proving that negligence indeed occurred is very vital towards having a successful claim.

Our lawyers are expert medical negligence solicitors specializing in lawsuits against nursing homes and will ensure that no stone is left unturned to get you or your loved one the justice you deserve as well as best possible nursing home negligence lawsuit settlements.

What is Nursing Home Negligence?

Nursing Home Negligence refers to all forms of nursing home abuse or mistreatment in nursing homes, substandard care, avoidable mistakes, actions and inactions, by nurses or other nursing home staffs which leads to harm, injury, suffering, complications or even death of their residents. 

Such negligent treatment in nursing homes can include mistakes in drug prescription and administration, pressure sores, physical abuse, lack of supervision among others.

If you or your loved one has suffered mistreatment in nursing homes, then our care home solicitors are ready and available to listen to you, evaluate if you have strong grounds to make care home claims and proceed to make claims for you.

We expect that our loved ones who have been put in a care home received the best possible care from their carers and nurses. When this is not done, the effects could be traumatic and devastating.

The Department of Health receives over 200,000 cases of alleged elderly abuse every year in the UK. Of this number, 112,000 cases are received from England alone. This is according to the Health secretary. This is indeed saddening and highly unacceptable.

Why Might Neglect Occur In A Care Environment?

There are several reasons why neglect might occur in a care environment an these include-

• Unprofessionalism Of The Caregivers
• Poor Infrastructure
• Improper training of staff
• Understaffing leading to staff being overworked
• Inadequate Policies

When such reasons lead to negligence, residents could suffer injuries, life-altering or permanent debilitating conditions, reduced life expectancy or even death.

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What Type Of Negligence Occurs In Nursing Homes?

Neglect in care homes come in diverse ways. Having had many years of experience representing individuals with care home negligence claims, we have noticed the following as negligence that occurs in care homes.

• Medication errors such as mistakes in dosage administration or wrong prescription
• Poor record keeping of residents medical records 
• Failing to make appropriate medical arrangements and informing resident’s family of the resident’s health condition worsens
• Poor Handling of residents leading to falls and subsequent injuries
• Failing to provide disabled residents with appropriate mobility aids
• Cases of residents wandering off due to lack of adequate monitoring of supervision
• Failing to treat pressure sores or bed sores after patients have been left unattended to in a particular position
• Failing to provide clean clothing or beddings
• Failing to provide appropriate food according to health needs of residents
• Failing to provide adequate care to patients with dementia or other forms of mental problems
• Physical abuse and use of excessive force
• Ignoring residents’ complaints

Nursing Home Negligence Claims We Undertake

• Pressure Sores Claims
• Care home Injury claims
• Care home GP Negligence Claims
• Care home Abuse Claims
• Care home fee claims
• Nursing Home Sepsis Lawsuit
• Care home NHS claim

For any of these care home claims, we have specialist medical negligence solicitors to handle your claims professionally, give you the needed care home legal advice and explain in detail to you what the claims process entails. We will ensure you receive a deserving care home neglect compensation while seeing to it that your claims case is smooth, stress free as you get all the support you require. 

Signs Of Negligence In A Nursing Home

There are different signs that you can look out for when you visit your loved one. These signs can show that your loved one may not be receiving the best possible care in that nursing home facility;

• Bed sores And Pressure Sores from lack of mobility
• Unexplained injuries
• Malnourishment And Dehydration
• Poor personal hygiene
• Unsanitary living conditions
• Psychological issues leading to fear, sudden resentfulness and depression

How To Take Action Against Nursing Home For Negligence?

Proving nursing home negligence requires that you demonstrate that the nursing home staff or nurses owed your loved one a duty of care but breached that duty of care. You should also establish that their failure in fulfilling their duty of care towards you or your loved one led to the avoidable injury, harm, worsened medical condition or death of the resident.

This is to say that you have to demonstrate liability and causation.

It is therefore necessary that you choose lawyers specializing in nursing home neglect to assist you make your claims and represent you in these medical legal cases involving nurses.

You will also be required to provide documents which will help prove your claims. These include;

• Detailed statements 
• Medical reports of the resident
• Photographs showing the extent of injuries
• Witness statements
• Proof of contract with the nursing home authorities to care for your loved one
• Evidence of financial losses incurred as a result of the negligent treatment

We may also require that another medical expert comes in to examine your loved one to determine the severity of harm suffered as this will be very vital when negotiating the settlement payout.

Making A Claim For Nursing Home Negligence Claim

This simply refers to the process where an individual takes legal action against nurses or other staff in a care home for negligent treatment towards their loved one under their care.

We have simplified the process of making claims in the following steps;

• Contact us
• Funding your Nursing home Claim
• Build your case by gathering evidence to prove your claims
• Contacting the defence party and submission of letter of claim
• Negotiations with defense counsel
• Securing Interim payments for you where necessary
• Registering of claims before a court where both parties fail to agree on vital issues
• Negotiation of compensation fee and payment

With our care home solicitors, you can be sure to get the best representation from expert nursing home neglect attorneys.

How To Claim Back Nursing Home Fees?

The following processes outlined are steps to be taken to claim back nursing home fees if you have been incorrectly made to pay nursing home fees which you shouldn’t pay for.

• Write a complaint letter to the relevant Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) asking for a review of the past fees paid in past periods of care
• Fill the Needs Portrayal Document and/or Decision Support Tool document sent to you
• Have a meeting with the Clinical Commissioning Group
• Obtain medical notes and care home records and prepare your written submissions
• Meet with the Local Resolution Panel to discuss your complaints and submissions
• Write to the Independent Review Panel (IRP) conducted by NHS England if you couldn’t resolve your issues with the Local Resolution Panel
• Where all these processes have failed, write to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

Our lawyers are also well versed in care home fee claims and will surely stand by you if you have such issues to ensure you get what is rightfully yours.

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Compensation for Nursing Home Negligence

Nursing home negligence lawsuit settlements are not fixed but vary as each case is peculiar in its own way. Although the average settlement payout for medical negligence in the UK according to the NHS Resolution is about £50,000, care home negligence compensation can be way above that or below that figure all depending on some determinants which are peculiar with each nursing home claim.

These include;

• Type of injury or harm suffered
• Location of injury
• Severity of the injury
• Future prognosis
• Consequent financial losses and out of pocket expenses
• Costs of further medical treatment 
• Costs of rehabilitative care

Time Limit for Nursing Home Negligence 

The Limitation Act of 1980 allows a three-year time window for making all forms of medical negligence claim including nursing home claims. The three-year period starts from the date the negligence occurred or the date you first became aware of it.

However, for persons under 18years of age, they will have until their 21st birthday to make a claim.

Also, if the resident dies as a result of the negligent treatment, the time frame begins to count from the date of death.

Individuals who are physically or mentally incapacitated and are unable to make claims will however be allowed enough time to make claims when they get better.

In the above scenarios, a relation or next of kin known legally as a litigation friend can make claims on behalf of their affected loved ones. 

If you have any concerns about this, we can explain better to you how this can be done during our free consultation sessions.

How We Help Patients With Nursing Home Claims?

At Medical Negligence Direct, we undertake all our Nursing Home Negligence related claims under our No Win No Fee policy. This is also known as Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) which allows you to make claims without any financial risks. We strongly believe that anyone who has concerns over the quality of care he or a loved one receives at a care home, should have access to quality legal representation and be well compensated without legal fees standing as a hinderance.

Here, you do not have to pay legal fees before we can commence investigations. Also, should the case be unsuccessful, you do not owe us a penny. 

However, where the case is successful as most of our cases are, we shall take no more than 25% of your settlement payout as a “success fee”. 

Speak to us today by completing our quick Free Claim Assessment or call us on 0800 644 4240 and we will help you make your claims at no costs and win you a deserved compensation.