Will the NHS now be fair game for Medical Negligence Claims following the Mid Staffordshire NHS Scandal?
NHS hospitals may be facing an ‘explosion’ in medical negligence claims in the aftermath of the Francis Report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal. At least 1,200 patients have died as a result of identified failures in hospital care in Stafford Hospital, the report says.
Many patients have traditionally been reluctant to bring claims against the NHS and clinical negligence solicitors are often consulted almost as a last resort; even when the evidence of medical negligence strongly supports a claim for compensation. People often feel that somehow the NHS, paid for by their taxes, ought not to be pursued for compensation, even when doctors working within it have been negligent and caused harm as a result.
Many specialist clinical negligence solicitors believe this attitude may now change once the public reads about the Mid Staffordshire findings. If more patients feel that doctors ought to be held to account, there may be a significant increase in the number of enquiries made to medical negligence law firms about possible claims arising out of medical accidents – which in turn would probably lead to an increase in the number of viable compensation claims being brought.
There has been a steady increase in the volume of medical negligence claims brought against the NHS in the last decade, partly as a result of increased public awareness; people are more ready to question doctors and what they do, and the NHS is really no different to any other organisation whose employees sometimes get things wrong and cause damage.
What has happened in Staffs will only have serve to accelerate this trend and increase the number of like clinical negligence claims being made.