NHS compensates widow
It has been revealed that the NHS has awarded a family compensation, after a medical negligence blunder killed their loved one.
The patient who had a heart condition died a day after being sent home from hospital without a scan.
The victim’s family have received £150,000 in compensation from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The 61 year-old patient, from Nottingham, died after he was discharged from the Queen’s Medical Centre, where he had gone complaining of chest pains.
It was later discovered that he had suffered an aortic dissection – a tear in his aorta.
The Trust apologised for "shortcomings" in his case.
The family's lawyer, Steve Wengraf, medical negligence partner at a law firm, said the hospital failed to carry out a vital scan which may have identified the victim's condition.
He stated that the patient: "Went into hospital with chest pains. He was looked at and then discharged home. What he did have was an aortic dissection, which killed him. There is a scan they should have done. They didn't do it."
He said after his wife pursued a medical negligence claim, the Trust agreed to settle, paying compensation of £150,000 plus costs.
He added: "It's very sad. He was her carer, she is not particularly well so she has lost her carer as well. She just hopes the process will mean that it is less likely this will happen again."
A Trust spokesman responded: "I wish to offer our sincere apologies in respect of the shortcomings identified in (the patients) care at the time of his death in July 2006.
"A settlement was reached [...] this accepts that an inappropriate failure to diagnose and treat her late husband's aortic dissection on July 24 2006 and that, had appropriate treatment been provided, her late husband would probably have survived.”
Scotland and clinical errors
In similar news, Scottish NHS chiefs have been forced to payout a massive £23 million in compensation over the past year.
A study showed that 13 of the 14 health boards have had to cough up a worrying £72.5 million to patients who have suffered from medical mistakes.
It was revealed that 8,204 people received payouts for NHS blunders over that period, meaning on average they received £8,831.15.
Scottish ministers responded to the new statistics. Labour's Cathy Jamieson, the Shadow Health Secretary, stated:
"People need to be compensated when things go wrong, but boards should be doing everything possible to ensure this isn't necessary and money is spent on frontline services."
Conservative Health spokesman Jackson Carlaw ,angrily commented: "Surely if more effort was taken to hold people to account for their errors, taxpayers would not have to stump up such an eye-watering amount to compensate for NHS incompetence?"
NHS Fife was number one on the compensation league board, paying out over £6 million with 15 claims per year.
NHS Shetland is the only health authority in Scotland who has not been forced to make a payout in the last year.
A spokeswoman for the board said: "By and large we have high-quality services and a good standard of care.
"When things go wrong we try and explain it directly to patients and resolve problems locally."
Updated on 9/3/2009