AIBU to consider legal action after admitted hospital negligence?

[BillyNotQuiteNoMates]

I don't want to go into too much detail, to avoid "outing" myself, (name changed) but a close family member passed away recently, in hospital. We know there was serious negligence. The hospital have admitted this, and I have been advised in a document from the NHS to contact a lawyer. My problem is that other family members are adamant that they do not want to know what happened or pursue any action, so I can't speak to them about it. While "money" is always "useful", I don't WANT it, I just don't want anyone else to go through what my family have. I have been advised that sueing is the most effective way of forcing changes. So, should I sue (NBU), and if I do, what should I do with any financial payout?
For poll purposes
Sue ... YANBU
Don't sue ... YABU

If they have admitted negligence then it's unlikely that you would need to go to court, unless the person affected was a child.

When I was 10, my GP admitted negligence and my parents were advised to appoint a solicitor on my behalf and they would cover the costs - if you do appoint one then make sure they have agreed to cover costs of yours.

I think its important to think about why legal action is being taken/what difference it would make? My parents were advised to pursue this as I would likely need surgery when fully grown and the payout could cover cost of this being done privately at my convenience rather than being stuck on wait lists.

If your aim is to ensure no repeat, I would be looking at a formal complaint, eith evidence of anyone culpable being reported to their professional body for investigation - the Dr in my case self reported to the GMC and had his scope of practice restricted.

As a pp said you'd be better to push for an inquest. A medical negligence claim can take years, will be very stressful and could destroy your family if you aren't all in agreement in the first place. I hope you get some closure and a change to grieve peacefully.

You can donate the money to charity in their name

Surely the answer is take legal advice & then make an informed decision rather than ask a load of strangers? Irwin Mitchell are a good firm for this sort of work

I wouldn't fall out with family over something like this if I could avoid it.

If it was a case of the deceased having dependents whose quality of life was negatively impacted - e.g a parent with no significant life cover and those young children won't habe the same income if the parent survived is vastly different to a csse where there are no dependents/financial loss etc.

I wouldn't put myself and my family through this. It's bound to get into the local press. I'm assuming your relative was seriously ill and likely to have died soon regardless?

I would be upset but not sure. I don't suppose the doctors or nurses made the mistake deliberately. I'd ask for a written apology.

I think it depends what kind of outcome you would want.

DH and I disagreed about taking legal action after an arrogant Dr did something with our DD that absolutely worsened her condition and that we had absolutely made clear we were against.

DH didn’t want to damage our ongoing relationship with the hospital, but I was resolute I didn’t want to let it go.

We discussed it at length and ultimately decided that I wanted to pursue more than DH didn’t.

You have to balance out the benefit, in terms of feeling like appropriate action have been taken and things have changed, and protecting yourself and your relationships.

I presume the death was referred to the coroner? what was the result of the inquest? If the hospital negligence contributed to the death, it will say that in the inquest outcome.

Medical negligence solicitor here.

Firstly, there’s a big difference between the Trust admitting failings in care following an investigation and them admitting breach of duty and causation, both of which you have to prove to win a negligence claim.

The statutory bereavement award of £15,120 is only available to certain family members. Unless the deceased was your spouse, partner or child under 18, I doubt you’d be eligible to claim.

Equally, you could claim loss of financial dependency but only if the deceased was maintaining you financially.

The value of the claim will very much depend on the age and occupation of the deceased, and what family members have survived them. I appreciate that your motivation for bringing a claim would be to seek to effect change within the NHS.

It would be sensible to pick up the phone and call a specialist medical negligence firm for an initial free chat. They can advise you whether the claim is worth pursuing and whether you have the legal standing to bring a claim on behalf of the deceased and their estate.

Op please speak to the charity AVMA who specialise in helping people who are dealing with situations that may amount to medical negligence. They are an excellent organisation and can signpost to lawyers if appropriate.

www.avma.org.uk

I was in a similar situation, but it was about my own health. I found asking AI, just through typing questions to google, very helpful. You can ask as many questions as you want, and it can give you different scenarios. It said I have a case, the negligence has resulted in a change to the rest of my life. I still haven’t decided whether I have the capacity to go through with a complaint, I have been treated very well recently….

I disagree that bringing a claim for clinical negligence is the way to ensure lessons are learned, that should take place via the patient safety investigation and to some extent the inquest which should take place if the death was unnatural. You should have been involved in the investigation and should be able to request assurance that any recommendations made by the investigation have been implemented. If that has not happen you should be able to contact the patient safety team or raise a complaint via PALS.

If your loved one’s death was caused or contributed to by clinical negligence then you may be able to bring a civil claim for the following:

1. The estate of the deceased can claim for their pain and suffering prior to death and funeral expenses.
2. Certain individuals may be entitled to a statutory bereavement award depending on their relationship to the deceased.
3. Certain individuals may be able to claim for a loss of dependency if they were financially or otherwise dependent on the deceased.

You can’t bring a claim if you are the ‘next of kin’ - that is not a legally defined concept.

I’m 6 years into an nhs death claim, it’s been really hard to read where mistakes had been made and getting experts to put it into writing. I’ve plans (if and when I get some money) to pay back the month my DH was in the Hospice, pay some back to the school I worked at who kept me on full pay for 18 months. The rest will go into trust for DS.

A close friend of mine and her family were in this position many years ago.

They did not pursue a claim, their logic being that money the NHS would spend on legal representation and potentially a payout would be better utilised improving their services.

You say other family members are against pursuing it, and you don't want money, so this seems like a sensible argument to me.

My friend, who was a teenager at the time, went on to become a medical scientist and has spent her career working in the NHS.

I doubt it will be an easy process and if you can face it, it’s be the right thing to do morally. For your relative’s and for other’s sake.

There is an inquest, waiting for results on that

No, she went in with something really minor.

Not had the results of the inquest uet

This is sound advice

OP also says the inquest hasn’t actually been concluded yet? Is that right OP

Hi @BillyNotQuiteNoMates I’ve been in your position - in my case I lost a parent due to medical negligence. It was fucking horrendous, made worse as I’m treated at the same hospital. Different illness & different teams, but the difference in standard of care is so painful to witness, & my teams had a great relationship with my parent as they were my NOK, so took an active role when things were not looking good for me. Anyhow, this made the question of suing more difficult, but my parent was adamant they wanted the negligence to be acknowledged, apologised for & compensation paid (if appropriate). This was obviously before they died. I got all three - apology, admittance of negligence & financial compensation (I used some of this to pursue an activity my parent loved). It can’t change the errors made & the impact it had on our family, but hopefully other families will have been spared our pain. Also, remember the NHS has insurance to cover these sad cases. I am sorry for your loss 💐

In our Trust we learn from the investigation- we apologise, we invite the patient or their relative to be part of the investigation process, to ask the questions they want to and to proof read the investigation draft. We then meet with people after the event (if they want to) to show them the changes we have made. Claims are mostly handled by Trust solicitors or NHS Resolutions, any learning identified for us normally corresponds with what we have found anyway. So it depends what outcome you want…. and trusts do this differently. My GF died of negligence we choose not to sue as the actions taken by the trust were the right actions - also Mum felt she didn’t want to take money from the NHS, that was entirely the eight decision for her.

Coroners are expressly forbidden by statute from making a finding of criminal or civil liability, including negligence. Inquests are a fact-finding process to determine how someone died, they are not concerned with questions of blame. They will want to understand any concerns the family have and will consider requests that you make for relevant documents / witnesses. A Coroners findings and conclusions may refer to issues in care but they have to be careful to do so in a neutral way (except in certain circumstances which are highly unlikely to apply here). An inquest may therefore help bereaved families find out more about how their loved one died which may inform a civil claim in due course - but it has a different purpose.

Coroners can also make ‘preventing future death’ reports to highlight any ongoing risks and ask organisations to report back about whether they can do anything to mitigate the risks further - but they cannot force organisations to take any particular steps. If the organisation has carried out a robust internal investigation and implemented the learning from that - that is usually sufficient assurance for the Coroner.

Yes, but we've been told that it could take years, and there's a time limit on legal action.