6 December 2012
Anyone living in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire would be concerned to read analysis of NHS performance data by Dr. Foster Intelligence that reveals “worryingly high” death rates at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust. These 3 NHS Trusts are responsible for the medical care provided at the Hull Royal Infirmary; Castle Hill Hospital; Scunthorpe General Hospital, Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby and Lincoln County Hospital. If you live in East Yorkshire or Lincolnshire, your NHS treatment will be provided at one of the hospitals managed by these 3 different NHS Trusts.
Unfortunately, this latest news comes as little to surprise to Mr Tim Slow, Head of Clinical Negligence Department at Williamsons Solicitors, Hull. In the previous 2 years the firm has settled countless clinical negligence cases against the 3 local NHS Trusts identified, these have included various claims arising from unnecessary and preventable deaths. One such distressing case involved a young lady who underwent a hysterectomy. Prior to the operation, she was not given the correct antibiotics to prevent the risk of developing an infection. When she subsequently developed clinical signs of infection in the post-operative period there was a failure to recognise these promptly and commence appropriate treatment. As a result, she died from Group A Haemolytic Streptococcus, which is an extremely virulent infection, only 2 days after the hysterectomy had been performed. If her care been reasonable she would have probably survived; this proved to be devastating news for her family to learn, especially when they only discovered this at a later date with the involvement of Williamsons Solicitors.
In commenting upon the findings of the Dr Foster report, Mr Tim Slow said “I regularly hear the same story from patients and/or their families in respect of the disappointingly poor standard of care they receive in various different hospitals throughout East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Regrettably, this often results in avoidable harm or unnecessary death. With my 22 years’ experience of pursuing clinical negligence claims against local hospitals, there is no evidence that the NHS is learning from their previous mistakes and I am seeing an increasing number of patients unnecessarily injured. Sadly, the consequences of such mistakes can have a devastating impact upon the injured patient and/or their families”.
