A recent study has highlighted the risk factors and consequences for patients of accidental awareness during general anaesthesia, including long term psychological harm.
A woman has been awarded a five figure sum of damages following the death of her mother, who died after receiving “below standard care” at a hospital in North Staffordshire, reports the Daily Mail.
The European Commission has recently published details on how the Commission and EU countries are addressing the challenge of patient safety.
A widow has been awarded £50,000 in compensation after a GP failed to realise that her husband was suffering from bowel cancer, reports the BBC.
A draft Bill designed to give doctors in England and Wales the freedom to practise innovative medicine on patients is both dangerous and unnecessary, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has said in response to a Government consultation.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee recently published its report into maternity services in England.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is calling on doctors and nurses across England and Wales to become better educated in how to safely care for patients who are given fluids through a drip (intravenous fluid therapy).
The BMA Scotland have warned that GP’s today are dealing with ever increasing workloads as the total number of GP practices in Scotland has fallen by 70 in the past 10 years. The decrease in practices and an estimated 10% increase consultations since records began in 2003 mean that there is an increased risk of doctors “burning out” from the stress of their workload.
A mother has been awarded compensation after she claimed that her son’s cerebral palsy was the result of alleged medical negligence, reports the BBC.
Findings from a new report released by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) show that patient care is being put at risk by staff cuts and excessive workloads, leading to unprecedented nurse stress and ill health.
The NHS Commissioning Board Authority has published the latest set of Organisation Patient Safety Incident data.
Over 3000 former patients of an unidentified healthcare worker are to receive correspondence offering advice and screening in Fife. The health worker, now retired, unknowingly worked for many years following on from contracting Hepatitis C.
Health Secretary Alex Neil has launched a set of ‘must do’ patient safety essentials at a conference on the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.
A leading expert in the field of clinical quality improvement from the University of Dundee has advised that the NHS in Scotland must adopt a radically different approach if it wishes to learn from medical mistakes and improve the standards of care provided in Scottish hospitals.
Patients’ safety and wellbeing could be at risk because the working patterns of doctors in training are leaving them too tired and stressed. These are the worrying findings of a recent study commissioned by the General Medical Council (GMC).
Scotland has one of the highest perinatal mortality rates in Europe. Between January 2009 and June 2011 the NHS in Scotland paid out over £70,000,000 in damages in relation to negligence resulting in stillbirths and babies born with disabilities.
The family of a man who died while taking part in a clinical trial has been awarded an undisclosed amount in compensation, reports Orange News.
Doctors in the UK are to become the first in the world to have regular assessments to ensure that their training and expertise are up-to-date and that they are fit to carry out their roles, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.
The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on plans to reform the system of NHS compensation claims by introducing a no-fault compensation scheme in Scotland.
The change would mean patients who have suffered loss, injury or damage as a result of healthcare treatment could be compensated without having to resort to court action.
The proposed new system would still require proof that harm was caused by treatment but would remove the need to prove negligence.
Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson said:
"We know that the vast majority of the care delivered in our NHS is of the highest quality, but it is important that people who have suffered as a result of clinical mistakes should have some form of redress.
"It's in no-one's best interests to have that redress delayed because a compensation claim can take years to go through the courts and nor is it in anyone's interests to have precious NHS resources spent on expensive legal fees.
“That is why we are considering the introduction of a no-fault compensation system. It is important that we seek wider views in order to help in our understanding of what the practical implications would be and to ensure that those affected receive appropriate redress without the need to go through a lengthy court process.”
No-fault systems are already in place in countries such as Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark and Norway, and parts of the United States.
