MEDICAL COMPENSATION CLAIM SPECIALISTS
Somerset’s NHS hospitals have experienced problems in recent years. Although Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton is the largest General Hospital in Somerset, [MPH serves a population of over 340,000], it is the smaller Yeovil District Hospital that is been the subject of most controversy. And both hospitals have been responsible for too many clinical errors – and that’s where our medical negligence solicitors come in.
Victim of a medical error in Somerset? Call our specialist medical negligence solicitors now on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 – for FREE phone advice and a FREE first appointment.
NHS league tables September 2025 update – are Somerset Hospitals failing?
In the new NHS league tables (September 2025), the two main hospital trusts serving Somerset both ranked badly – in the lower half of the national table.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and Yeovil District Hospital, was placed 83rd out of 134 acute trusts. Inspectors have raised concerns about urgent and emergency services, which remain under pressure, and about delays in treatment that affect patient safety.
But even less welcome news was the report on Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, which also serves patients from North East Somerset. It performed worse still, ranking 112th out of 134. That puts it well into the bottom quarter, and places it in category 4 – the official category of the worst hospitals in the country!.
The Care Quality Commission has rated parts of the RUH trust, including its safety and leadership, as “requires improvement.” These results show that while many Somerset patients receive good care, there are ongoing weaknesses in both trusts that can put patients at risk. If you or a family member have suffered from mistakes or poor care at either trust, your case deserves to be looked at closely.
RECENT SAFETY AND INSPECTION REPORTS IN SOMERSET HOSPITALS
The creation of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in 2020 brought together Musgrove Park Hospital, Yeovil District Hospital, and community services.
The Care Quality Commission has carried out inspections since the merger.
Musgrove Park Hospital has generally been rated “Good,” but inspectors have raised concerns about urgent and emergency care capacity and delays in diagnostics.
Yeovil District Hospital has also faced challenges with staffing levels and pressure on maternity services.
“Never Events” have been reported at Somerset hospitals, including surgery on the wrong part of the body and surgical objects left inside patients after surgery. These incidents are very serious – because as the name suggests, they should never happen. Although thankfully they remain uncommon, they do highlight the importance of robust safety procedures which have clearly been lacking at these Somerset hospitals.
SOMERSET MEDICAL ERRORS – RECENT CASES AND INQUESTS
There have been several high-profile medical negligence cases in Somerset hospitals in recent years.
In Taunton, a coroner’s inquest examined the death of a patient whose stroke symptoms were not recognised quickly enough, leading to missed treatment opportunities.
In Yeovil, a family received a settlement after a baby was injured during childbirth due to delays in escalation and intervention.
The Royal United Hospital in Bath, which serves parts of Somerset, has also been involved in coroner’s reports raising concerns about delays in reviewing deteriorating patients and fall-related deaths.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PATIENTS IN SOMERSET – IT’S A MIXED PICTURE
While Somerset hospitals continue to provide vital services across a wide geographic area, they also face significant pressures.
Cases involving delayed diagnosis, problems in maternity care, and surgical errors have been reported in recent years. And the concerns are amplified by the NHS league table result. The combination of inquests, CQC reports, and published Never Events shows that mistakes do happen, sometimes with devastating consequences for patients and their families.
If you believe you or a loved one has been affected by avoidable mistakes in Somerset, you should seek expert legal advice as soon as possible. Our team of medical negligence solicitors can review the details, explain the time limits for making a claim, and advise you whether you may be entitled to compensation.
HISTORICAL MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE IN SOMERSET
And these concerns are nothing new. For example, a report published back in 2014 on the NHS Choices website described the Somerset hospital as one of just 29 in the UK to be rated as “poor” – in particular with regard to a lack of open and transparent reporting of safety risks.
That 2014 poor rating followed an earlier decision in 2012 by Monitor to describe the trust running YDH as a “high risk”, which in turn led to a decision in oncerns about short-term financial problems at Yeovil District Hospital.
And Musgrove Park Hospital itself hasn’t been immune from serious problems in the past either. back in 2014, the Guardian newspaper reported:
“NHS faces legal bill as dozens suffer problems after private eye operations. Dozens of people have been left with impaired vision, pain and discomfort after undergoing operations provided by a private healthcare company at an NHS hospital.”
And earlier, in 2011, the Shepton Mallet Treatment Centre, run by private healthcare firm UK Specialist Hospitals, was found to have claimed almost £7 million of taxpayers’ money for operations that were never carried out.
VICTIM OF A MEDICAL ERROR IN SOMERSET? CALL US NOW
The vast majority of us entirely trust NHS staff to give us the right level of care and medical assistance, and to treat us properly when we ask for their help or we get poorly. Every now and then, nevertheless, things simply go wrong. When this takes place in a healthcare setting, the consequences can be catastrophic, creating life-changing problems, or even resulting in death.
If you have experienced negligent medical treatment and suffered some sort of physical injury, irrespective of whether you were a private patient, or sought treatment on the NHS, you have a right to compensation.
Wherever you live in Somerset, if you are thinking of making a compensation claim following a medical mistake and you need expert legal advice, our specialist medical negligence solicitors can help.
MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE – THE NEED FOR ACCREDITED SPECIALISTS
Many years ago, solicitors were like GPs – one solicitor would have handled everything for you – from, conveyancing and divorce to business law and accident claims.
Those days are long gone.
The best solicitors are specialists – and medical negligence, above all, requires really specialist knowledge and experience. Why? It’s not just that the law and procedure surrounding medical errors is complex – it is.
To give you the best chance of winning the compensation you deserve, your medical negligence solicitors will need to properly understand your medical records – that includes viewing x-rays, deciphering GP records and hospital notes and reading medical reports.
WHAT IS MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE?
Being unhappy with the medical treatment carried out by a doctor or similar health professional is sadly not unusual. However, this is not the same as medical or clinical negligence.
Medical negligence only refers to the most serious failures of care, and often results in legal action and an award of compensation.
NO WIN NO FEE MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
Claiming compensation following a medical error involves expensive legal bills. But you don’t need to worry about paying legal costs if you instruct us – our solicitors can run your claim using a no win no fee arrangement.
SOMERSET – HOME OR HOSPITAL VISITS AVAILABLE
If you are unable to travel, we can arrange to have one of our experienced medical negligence solicitors visit you in your home or in the hospital anywhere in Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset or Hampshire. Alternatively you can instruct us by phone, email or video call.
FREE MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE ADVICE IN SOMERSET – CALL TODAY
The initial phone assessment of your claim and your first appointment with us are both completely FREE – so call us now.
HOW OUR MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SOLICITORS CAN HELP YOU
- We will collect evidence to prove a clear link between your medical treatment and the injuries you suffered
- Our team will obtain reports from our panel of expert medical experts about the effect that your injuries will affect on your day-to-day life in future
- Where our lawyers are able to persuade the insurance company representing the hospital or doctor involved to accept responsibility for causing your injuries, we will arrange interim payments as soon as we can to purchase any equipment that you may require to be as independent as possible, and to cover any of your out-of-pocket expenses
DON’T DELAY MAKING YOUR CLAIM
Too many people miss out on the medical negligence compensation they deserve because they did not claim in time.
There is a strict time limit on making medical compensation claims, so don’t be tempted to delay too long before you pick up the phone – or you risk losing your right to the compensation you deserve entirely.
I HAVE SEEN THE TERMS MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE, CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE AND HOSPITAL COMPENSATION USED. ARE THEY DIFFERENT?
No, these terms all mean the same thing – they all refer to bringing negligence claims against any medical services provider or practitioner such as a hospital or GP surgery. It is however likely that you will see the terms medical negligence and clinical negligence used most commonly
I AM THE VICTIM OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE BUT I’M CONCERNED ABOUT SUING MY DOCTOR PERSONALLY. IS THIS NECESSARY?
Rather than claiming against the doctor himself, we usually claim against the NHS Trust that employed them. This is not always the case though, particularly if you were a private patient, in which case we will look at the details of your case and decide on the most appropriate direction to take.
MY INJURY WAS CAUSED BY A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WHO WASN’T A DOCTOR? CAN I STILL CLAIM COMPENSATION?
Yes, any healthcare professional can be guilty of medical negligence and if you were injured as a result, you deserve to be compensated. Here at Bonallack & Bishop, we have has pursued medical negligence claims on behalf of our clients against nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists, not just hospitals.
AM I STILL ENTITLED TO CLAIM IF I WAS A PRIVATE MEDICAL PATIENT?
Yes, whether you were treated privately or within the NHS, you could be entitled to make a claim.
WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CLAIMS?
• Misdiagnosis
This can be particularly distressing, either if you’ve been told you have a condition which it is then found you do not have, or, perhaps more worryingly, being erroneously given the all-clear and later finding out that you have a condition which has got progressively worse and could have been cured or treated earlier. Cancer misdiagnosis is particularly worrying and can be life-threatening. This particular form of medical misdiagnosis one of the most common claims our medical negligence solicitors come across.
• Birth injuries or defects
Giving birth is complicated and full of risks, but medical negligence can increase these risks and result in birth defects or injuries to the mother or baby through the incorrect administering of drugs or through procedural errors causing damage or injury to the baby.
In these cases, the negligence may cause injuries or damage which will last for the lifetime of the child, potentially being huge in terms of the financial implications. In terms of the average financial compensation, these cases are particularly prominent.
• Nursing negligence
Nurses have a duty of care to ensure that their patients are comfortable and well looked after, and investigations a few years back into Staffordshire Hospital, for example, found that nurses were leaving patients without adequate food and water, leaving them to have to drink from flower vases in order to stop themselves dehydrating.
Most people would agree that this sort of negligence is shocking and unacceptable, and low staffing levels and budget cuts in the NHS have meant that nursing negligence is, unfortunately, on the rise.
• Failure in sterilisation or abortion
In cases where a person’s sterilisation or an abortion has failed, a child can be born unexpectedly whereas otherwise it would not have been expected or desired. In this case, the financial implications for the parents can be huge and this is taken into account when medical negligence is assessed, and compensation levels are decided. It is for this reason that compensation payouts for the negligence involved in a failed sterilisation cases tend to be quite high.
• General NHS negligence
The NHS, as a whole, tends to operate as a slick and well-oiled machine. However, things can go seriously wrong. In the case, for example, that following a stroke or heart attack an ambulance takes an unreasonable amount of time to reach you and you later suffer brain damage or other organ damage due to a lack of oxygen, you may be able to seek a claim for medical negligence against the NHS as a whole or a part of it, such as the ambulance service.
• Surgical negligence
This covers a wide range of errors – including anything from inadequate pain relief during surgery to having the wrong organ removed by a surgeon. As you might imagine, the levels of compensation involved tend to reflect the seriousness of the situation and the potential long-term suffering and loss of earnings.
If you suspect that you might have suffered from negligence at the hands of a medical professional, you should seek the advice from experienced medical negligence solicitors, who will be able to look at your case independently and advise as to whether or not the NHS might have a case to answer. If they do, it is quite possible that you might be due financial compensation.
LIVE IN SOMERSET? LOOKING FOR MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SOLICITORS? CALL US NOW
Don’t let worries and concerns stop you from putting your negligence claim forward.
Our solicitors have enormous experience of appointing the right medical expert – whether you are considering a compensation claim against the NHS or a private hospital or clinic, don’t leave getting the right independent medical advice to chance.
- Call us free on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or
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