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Medical Negligence Articles

For latest Medical Negligence Articles please cleck on the title below.

Deep Clean Targets Missed By Hospitals

A leading health campaigning organisation from the capital, London Health Emergency claims that several NHS hospitals will fail to meet the March 31st deadline set by the government for deep cleaning of hospitals which is supposed to reduce the spread of hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and C Difficile.

The end of March deadline was set by Gordon Brown at last year's Labour Party conference when he promised that every hospital in England would be thoroughly cleaned to eradicate these "superbugs".

However, according to London Health Emergency at least four London hospitals would not reach the deadline for the deep clean. Chairman Geoff Martin said "We understand that many hospitals, because of sheer pressure on beds, have been unable to decant patient areas and deep clean them properly. Instead they have had a bit of a spring clean around the beds and that is not what we were promised."

Andrew Large, Director General of the Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA) said, "Our major concern now is that there is a leadership vacuum in the NHS on cleaning issues. There are too many different NHS bodies with overlapping responsibilities, and this coupled with the autonomy enjoyed by individual NHS Trusts makes it too easy for responsibility for funding and managing cleaning to be fudged."

£5 Million compensation for a medical negligence claim?

Should Lesley Ash Receive £5 Million compensation for a medical negligence claim?

Lesley Ash was admitted to hospital in April 2004 with two broken ribs after falling off a bed at home. Whilst in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital she became infected with a strain of the Hospital Superbug MRSA, MSSA. This has left her using a walking stick and unable to work as an actress.

Media coverage has described the amount of compensation as "too much" or "excessive" without analysing why Lesley Ash has been awarded such a significant sum.

Every claim for medical negligence includes a claim for compensation for the pain and suffering experienced, which in her case had been significant. However, in terms of the overall value of the claim this will not have been the most substantial part.

As a successful actress prior to contracting the superbug Lesley Ash's earnings would have been substantial and it is the loss of these earnings since contracting the superbug in 2004 until now, and also from now until she would have retired, that will form the most substantial part of the claim. Anyone who has seen Lesley Ash since she left hospital will have seen her having real difficulty walking. Clearly she is unlikely to be offered the acting parts she would have been offered before the accident. The press has claimed that she has only received the high award of compensation because she was "famous". This is not technically true. The "famous" part is incidental to the claim; the reason the compensation was so high is her lost earnings, not the fame itself. If, for example, Ms Ash had been earning £250,000 each year before the accident, not being able to work for three years would lead to a compensation claim for £750,000. As she is unlikely to work again for the remainder of her life, it can be seen how the claim became substantial.

Most victims of MRSA will not recover such substantial sums, but there are other people who, if they were unfortunate enough to contract a hospital superbug, could recover even more money if they could not work again. So whilst Lesley Ash's claim seems substantial, it is mainly due to her lost earning capacity, not the pain experienced as a result of the superbug.

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