To Consider Suing Over a Hospital Fall 2 yr Ago ??

[rockinhippy]

Just coming up to DDs birthday, which reminds me of a bad fall I had at a local hospital nearly 2 years ago now, that ruined the day & made it extremely difficult for me that particular year.

I HATE the whole litigation culture thing, hence why apart from emailing the HA, where I was fobbed off with this hospital been the responsibility of another HA - wrote to BOTH, only to be ignored - that in itself I could live with & bar been annoyed about my broken specs, could put down to experience, if it wasn't for the fact that the fall happened as a direct result of a very dangerous & plain daft very narrow "pavement" - I drew their attention to this, by way of pointing out that it WAS dangerous, especially as it was near the MS centre, so double so for the people using that clinic - I had hoped that they would realise I COULD sue them & would have a good case - they would fix the damned thing - nearly 2 years later its EXACTLY the same - even the staff that picked me up & organised transport to A&E said it was an accident waiting to happen - yet nothing has changed.

Basically its a narrow aprox 6" wide "pavement" - put there I was told to stop people wandering into the road it edges - but its weird, it tricks the eye into thinking it is an actual pavement - but you step onto it & theres no proper pavement there as its very narrow - sort of like stepping into a pot hole & I went flying - I smashed a £300 pair of specs, not new, but not old either, I badly bruised both my knees & I fractured ribs - DDs party was the next day, so as you can imagine, no specs, lots of pain it wasn't the easiest of days & as I'd promised to make her cakes & no time to do otherwise, so that was pure hell baking cakes with cracked ribs & they were a mess:(

I keep thinking about it & I'm annoyed, I tried to do the right thing & not sue, but let them know so it could be put right, but nothings changed & its still dangerous

AIBU to think I've been too soft suing might be the only way to get them to put it right

WWYD ??

You didnt suffer any long term damage..........annoying/upsetting as it was I would let it go. Hospitals are stretched enough without you adding to the burden.

You didnt sue 2 years ago so why now? Just move on.......

Betty its not about sueing for my own benefit - its about making them fix the damned problem that caused it -

but I did suffer long term, other health problems meant it took a year to stop having daily rib pain & be able to manage again & I still suffer with it now if its damp

Report them to HSE then.

Report them to HSE then

Now that was something I hadn't thought of - thank you Madge

If you felt so strongly you would have sued 2 years ago. Suing the hospital now isn't going to make them fix it, its only going to put money into your pocket (and take money away from other patients). If you feel so strongly go to the paper to alert them to the problem or start a local campaign. I don't really understand from your description why its the hospitals fault actually, surely you could see the pavement wasn't suitable for walking on. I hate this whole compensation culture we seem to be in.

You say you drew their attention to it.

Exactly who, and do you still have a record of your end of the correspondence?

For if you aim is to get it fixed, suing is not a good route. Start by reviving the old correspondence and reminding them what they undertook to do two years ago. Ask for sit rep, as nothing appears to have changed.

Copy correspondence to senior managers in the Trust, and the H&S manager. You might want to add on councillor/MP as well, plus any patients representative bodies.

YABU if you sue them.

YANBU If you want to get them to change it, then writing to the relevant people and following it up is the way to go.

"I HATE the whole litigation culture thing"

Then don't sue. YABU.

If you want to sue you are running out of time - the limitation period for personal injuries is 3 years. But if you want them to fix it rather than compensation, use the other routes suggested.

YANBU to be peed off. I get the impression you want recognition for what happened to be able to put it behind you, and so far no-one has taken it seriously which is why you're thinking of suing(?) I think Madge's suggestion to contact the HSE is a good one and I hope something it finally done to address the problem.

I don't think that the HSE will be particularly interested, to be honest. The inspectorate has been cut way back and really are only interested in work related incidents, which tbh is what H & S is really about.

YANBU for wanting them to rectify whatever deficiency is there. Have you see their incident report form? You could ask to see that and see what action they had promised to take, along with timescales

Firstly, if you sue you won't be taking money from other patients as it will be covered by an insurance company
Secondly, I would also consider going to a health and safety rep, or following up on your earlier correspondence
Thirdly, as part of a legal challenge (suing) the judge can order the hospital to make the changes necessary to make the area safe
Lastly, You don't need to keep any money awarded and could quite easily donate it to a ward or a charity of your choice if you so wished

If you weren't injured, what are you suing for? You have to be able to demonstrate some sort of loss or injury to claim compensation for.
It happened two years ago, put it out of your mind.

Suing a hospital does take money away from the patients. Just want to clear that up.

The more that has to be paid out for claims for a certain hospital means that the following year the payments the hospital has to make to CNST (the insurance scheme) goes up. Kind of like a normal motor policy.

My dad broke some ribs in hospital last year. He's elderly and inform, someone had propped the toilet door open with an oxygen cylinder. He tried to move it and had a bad fall. We didn't sue. Accidents happen.

I know you say the pavement is risky - but how many people walk on it/over it/past it every day without tripping over it?

I wouldn't. 1.it's been too long.2. You have fully recovered so therefore what would you be suing for or how much would you realistically get. 3. Even if you were successful then who do you think would end up paying for it.

However,I would write to them again and tell about the state of the path and your concerns.If it's that much of a risk they would want to do something so if anyone did really hurt themselves (as in life changing injuries which is what suing should be for, but that's just my opinion) they wouldn't want to have knowingly ignored warnings from you- what with the freedom of information act etc.

As for the HSE. I think they have bigger fish to fry to be honest.

yabu - petition for a safer pavement and maybe fundraise to get the funds to make the alterations or put a warning sign up but don't take money from the nhs - either in winnings or creating court costs.

You want to sue the hospital because you couldn't walk on a narrow but intact and level area alongside a road without falling over? This happened two years ago and you've said nothing till now.

Sure, go ahead.

You could see it was dangerous. Why on earth did you walk on it?

I used to work for a reputable personal injury lawyer- in an accountancy capacity not legal I hasten to add, but I very much doubt she would have touched this case because 2 years have elapsed.

Sorry but you just sound grabby and trying to justify yourself as pretending it's about safety. I can't see how you can prove liability actually (from a legal perspective) and two years on nobody would touch your "case".

Thanks for the replies - apologies for not flagging your points with individual names, or missing any, but nursing a sick DD right now, so I've little time to sit here (waiting on OH call back)

No NOT "grabby" at all - if I was, I would have sued straight away, rather than do the right thing & contact the hospitals PCT & let them know what had happened, with photos as proof of how bad & let them know how dangerous this weird "step" is, especially as its near to clinics used by elderly & disabled people

& yes I WAS injured - very badly bruised knees & fractured ribs, along with smashed specs that I had to replace at a cost, when they were only 4 months old - due to other health problems it took me a long time to recover too & ruined DDs birthday for me - you try dealing with 8x8 yr olds doped up on morphine & can't see because you've no suitable specs is not top of my things to repeat in life list

& you CANNOT see the problem when walking towards it - it looks like a normal pavement - but its not - its a few inches wide & then drops down even lower than the road

& yes to those of you that understood - I'm upset at ben ignored by the hospital trust - that would be fine if they had fixed the problem to save others from what happened to me or worse, but they haven't & looking through old photos pulled up a few that made me feel very angry about that

sorry have to go

If all you want is the problem fixed go to the press.

Just wanted to update this thread as I know lots of us like an update - I know I do :)

I never did hear anything back from the trust, which peed me off , but I have recently visit the hospital again & they were in the process of turning the weird 6 inch wide path like ledge into a proper pavement - it shouldn't have taken so long & they should have acknowledged my complaint, but at least they have finally righted the very dangerous walkway, so job done :)