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NHS Complaints

Is the NHS ignoring complaints over medical negligence?

A report by the charity Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) has revealed that the NHS is failing to comply with alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). These bodies were born out of an increase in the number of cases of medical negligence, but the NHS appears to be ignoring their advice.

In the five years between 2004 and 2009, the AvMA issued 57 alerts regarding procedures that involved drugs, surgery and other areas of medical treatment. Using the Freedom of Information Act, they were able to discover that more than 200 NHS organisations had failed to comply with between one and 23 of the alerts issued. The report also revealed that 29 NHS trusts had not implemented 10 or more of the alerts.

Non-compliance

They also found that many care providers had not yet complied with two rapid response alerts prompted by patients dying or suffering serious injury. These rapid response alerts carry extra urgency for obvious reasons. 116 had not implemented guidelines on the safe use of oxygen with patients, while 67 still had to implement new arrangements recommended by NPSA experts to improve the safety of injectable medicines.

The report goes on to say that, “it is impossible not to conclude that lives are being put at unnecessary risk, and it is likely that avoidable injuries or deaths are still being caused as a result of trusts not complying with patient safety alerts.”

Costing lives and money

In addition to the cost of human lives, the NHS Litigation Authority has released figures for the five-year period, stating that the cost of clinical negligence cases in England alone exceeds £560 million. The AvMA has released figures that suggest that there are around one million medical errors each year. A further report by the Department of Health estimates that there are around 850,000 medical accidents in England each year - most of which could have been avoided. Nicolas Jervis, managing director of personal injury specialists, 1stClaims, believes he can see a pattern unfolding. He says: “The unfortunate truth of the matter is that if the NHS continues to ignore the alerts recommended by the AvMA, the number of patient deaths and injuries as the result of medical negligence will continue to rise. In turn, the sums of money paid out to victims of medical negligence will also rise, eating away at a sizeable chunk of the NHS budget. This can only mean poorer service for

In February this year, the Department of Health wrote to all NHS trusts to remind them of the importance of adhering to the recommendations made by the AvMA. However, it seems that little progress has been made since that communiqué was sent out. The alerts suggested by the AvMA have to potential to positively impact upon the NHS as a whole - but only if they are acted upon. The NHS’s failure to comply with the majority of the directives issued is only serving to reinforce the notion that hospital treatment should be a last resort for anyone. In addition, previous victims of medical negligence who have been assured that ‘it will never happen again’ can only become more cynical about the care they have been subjected to.

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