Monthly Archives: March 2016

Marlborough Medical Negligence Solicitors

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If you live in Marlborough and believe that you have been the victim of medical negligence, you should talk to specialist solicitors about claiming compensation. Our Wiltshire based team have the expertise you need.

Marlborough and Swindon Hospitals – a History of Recent Problems

NHS patients in Marlborough are usually treated in Swindon’s Great Western Hospital or Marlborough’s own, much smaller, Savernake Community Hospital.

The last few years have sadly seen an ongoing series of serious failures and medical mistakes at the hospitals run by the controlling NHS trust – Great Western Hospitals Trust.

Here are just a few of the very real concerns about medical errors and standards of patient care;

  • A report by the Government health watchdog the Care Quality Commission published in January 2016 found that hospitals run by the Great Western Hospitals Trust “required improvement”. Perhaps most worryingly, the CQC stated “overall, we rated the safety of the services in the trust as ‘requires improvement”.

Going into more detail, of the twelve areas looked at by the inspection team, half of them also received a damning judgement of ‘requires improvement’, and worse still, Urgent and Emergency care services were described as ‘inadequate’. Click here if you want to read more about the CQC report

  • the trust has a record of numerous “never events”. Never events are serious medical errors that should never have happened.

Recently,  between May 2014 – April 2015, the trust managed to report two “never events”. This was sadly nothing new – but merely the latest in a series of events. For example, the GWH managed six such events in 2011-2012, including one swab that was left inside a breast cancer patient after surgery, and a couple more in 2013.

  • Earlier, a woman died at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital after having an epidural anaesthetic injected into her arm rather than her spine in error during labour

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE – MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SPECIALIST SOLICITOR ON SIDE

To successfully run your medical negligence claim, your solicitor will need to look through detailed medical records and extract information to find the evidence you will need to prove your case. This requires a good knowledge of medicine on top of legal expertise, and as a result, only specialist medical negligence solicitors will do.

The medical negligence team here at Bonallack and Bishop have many years of experience in this complex area of law and are happy to help clients in Marlborough – and to make home and hospital visits throughout Wiltshire for anyone who is too unwell to travel.

WHY CHOOSE US FOR YOUR MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CLAIM?

o As you can see, we are genuine specialists

o We are not a faceless claims management company, or call centre operation – we have well established Salisbury and Amesbury solicitors, Bonallack and Bishop, and your case will be run throughout in person by an experienced medical negligence solicitor

o We also offer FREE no strings attached initial advice over the phone as well as a FREE first appointment

o We are happy to make home and hospital visits in Marlborough or indeed throughout Wiltshire for anyone who is too unwell to travel to visit us

o We offer no win no fee agreements for medical negligence claims – so you need not worry about paying legal fees

LIVE IN THE MARLBOROUGH AREA? THINKING OF A MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CLAIM? CALL OUR SPECIALISTS TODAY

If you been the victim of a medical error and live in Marlborough, we can help you recover the full amount of compensation you are entitled to.

  • CALL US NOW on Salisbury [01722] 422300 or  FREEPHONE 0800 1404544l  or
  • Email our team using the enquiry form below.

    Watford Medical Negligence

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    Are you the victim of medical negligence at Watford General Hospital?

    We can help you claim compensation. Here at solicitors Bonallack and Bishop, we have a team of accredited medical negligence specialists – and you really do need an expert when it comes to running a medical negligence claim.

    Unfortunately, not only are there currently no accredited medical negligence specialists in Watford – but there are that none anywhere in Hertfordshire.

    But don’t worry – we can help. We regularly run cases in Hertfordshire.

    So for FREE no strings attached initial phone advice – call us now on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544

    The statistics make it clear how few genuinely independently accredited specialists there are – out of over 100,000 solicitors nationwide, just 180 have been accredited by the other leading panel for medical negligence solicitors [for details see below] and our team is led by one of them. And another member of the team, prior to qualification as a solicitor, was a highly experienced nurse.

    What’s more, we regularly run cases in Hertfordshire.

    WATFORD GENERAL HOSPITAL – A CONTINUING SERIES OF SERIOUS BASIC ERRORS

    Watford General Hospital is a big district general hospital with a full range of services,  approximately 600 beds and it provides care for around 500,000 people in Hertfordshire. The maternity service alone is one of the largest in southeast England and delivers around 6000 babies every year.

    But the last few years have sadly seen what appears a never-ending series of major failures and medical errors at the hospital. Amongst the more notable problems have been the following;

    • Perhaps most seriously, September 2015 saw the NHS trust in charge of Watford General Hospital put into what is referred to as “special measures” after an inspection by Government health watchdog the Care Quality Commission [CQC]. The report pulled no punches – as well as calling for big improvements, services provided by the hospital were rated by the CQC as “inadequate”. Amongst the more worrying disclosures in the report were serious failings in the quality of patient care, failure to learn the lessons of previous mistakes,  long delays for emergency patients turning up at A&E – and it was noted in general that many facilities were in such a bad state of repair that they were “a potential risk to staff and visitors” – and perhaps most remarkably a complete “lack of a safety culture”.
    • But the September 15 report was nothing new. Earlier in January 2014, an earlier unsatisfactory CQC report found the hospital requiring action in 5/6 categories – including something as basic as the “care and welfare of people who use services” -and “cleanliness and infection control” As a result, it’s hardly surprising there are been many individual instances of failures at the hospital including:
      • The premature death of a Hemel Hempstead postman’s when he was misdiagnosed with a chest infection by hospital staff. The 61-year-old man was, in fact, suffering from far more serious bronchial pneumonia. Tragically he passed away just six hours after arriving at Watford General Hospital
      • The death of two cancer patients at the hospital after a failure to give them follow-up appointments, breaking basic NHS rules. An internal investigation concluded that this meant the diagnosis of their cancer was delayed and may have contributed to their death.

    VICTIM OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE IN WATFORD? CALL OUR EXPERTS NOW

    For FREE initial advice and a FREE 1st appointment from specialist Medical Negligence specialists you can trust:

     • Call our team now FREE on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544

    • Or use the contact form below