Is It Safe To Go Into Hospital -

Details for Is It Safe To Go Into Hospital

ID:	1752
Author:	Galway
Title:	Is It Safe To Go Into Hospital
Article:	Personal injury compensation claims come from many different sources. It can be a work related incident where health and safety measures were not observed or it can come from a trip or slip that could have been prevented had the correct maintenance been carried out. However, more and more claims for personal injury that has occurred in hospitals are appearing on lawyers desks. In just two years, hospital blunders bringing about the death of a patient have increased by 60 per cent - an unacceptable level. Infections and mistakes during operations among other things caused the death of over 3,500 patients during that time, well over 2,000 more than previous years. Many of these patients will have family's that claim compensation from these hospitals for the personal injury of their loved one as a way of drawing attention to the hospital failings and also in a bid to ensure it doesn't happen again. Some are blaming the pressure on doctors that comes from the Government wanting waiting lists brought down to a more acceptable level. However, it may not be a completely accurate figure as some of these are brought to the public's attention after better record keeping. Medical negligence may have resulted in a large number of fatalities before but they simply weren't recorded as such. According to the Patients Association, one in every 300 NHS patients are killed because of human error - errors that could be avoided. Of course, we can't expect there never to be human error but when it comes to caring for peoples lives, checks need to be rigorous and many to avoid as many mistakes as possible. After surgeons mistakes during operations resulted in 385 deaths last year and 156 people lost their lives due to incorrectly read scans, these are things that surely could be avoided were they to be checked and re-checked. Hospital superbugs, which question the cleanliness of wards and operating theatres, were responsible for 309 deaths and 14 were down to inaccurate record keeping - both of which should be the absolute basics of caring for patients. A staggering 22 people died in NHS hospitals over the recorded period from abuse by hospital staff or visitors and 135 due to mix ups when transferring between wards or hospitals. Undetected depression brought on the suicides of 487 people on hospital property and a whole host of other mistakes brought the total to 3,645. It can often take many months or even years for medical negligence cases to get to court and at the moment, relatives claiming compensation for these personal injuries amount to 6,000 per year that make it to court. This cost the NHS a total of 382 pounds million last year alone. If there were practical measures they could put in place that would drastically reduce these cases, then that money could be spent on more doctors and nurses that would ensure the mistakes didn't happen in the first place. The situation that we currently have and the one we could have if funds were spent in the right areas all have knock on effects - each in a totally different direction so I suggest the time is long overdue for a change. About the author of this article: shaun parker is a leading financial expert with many years of experience in the compensation industry. find out more about personal injury at http://www.stewartslaw.com
Category:	Health
Date:	January 07, 2009 12:02:58 AM

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