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Leslie Ash got £5m compensation, not £500,000!

151 replies

mumemma · 16/01/2008 18:41

Looks like the papers got it wrong yesterday.....

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7192605.stm

OP posts:
alfiesbabe · 17/01/2008 07:45

Isn't the compensation linked to loss of earnings? I would imagine Leslie Ash had a history of extremely high earnings which have now dried up. Whether you think it's justifiable that TV actresses earn so much is a separate matter, but if this is how the compensation was claculated, then in a sense, fair enough.

saltire · 17/01/2008 08:12

On the topic of MRSA, did anyone see this article from the BBC here

noddyholder · 17/01/2008 08:19

I am shocked at this tbh.She originally got injured through her own doing by having drunken rough sex during a period where she admits she was over indulging in alcohol.I caught mrsa in 1999 when a tube used for dialysis in my neck got infected when the cap fell on the floor and beofre i knew it the nurse replaced it instead of putting a new one on.Within 48 hours i was violently ill and covered in bruises and it was touch and go at times.I didn't even consider compensation because I believe the NHS has saved my life twice with my transplants and every one is fallible.You never know when your life will depend on the NHS and for every person who gets this dreadful infection dozens more are saved by the dedication of this service who do brilliant work under difficult conditions.

needmorecoffee · 17/01/2008 08:34

right, getting my own claim in. My MS started within hours of a botched root canal filling. 8 years of pain, being in a wheelchair. Got 4 kids. NHS wont even give me a powerchair.
But I'm not a blonde actress and can't afford to sue.....

NoIHaventChangedMyName · 17/01/2008 08:41

a needle infected with MSSA? How? MSSA is soo common. Lots of us carry it. I'd really like to know how this was proved.

Large payouts for children who have had their quality of life affected through no fault of their own and have a reduced ability to work and a lifetime of care to pay for is a completely different ball game.

most 'normal' people can't afford to prove that the hospital was negligent in cases like this.

jenkel · 17/01/2008 08:47

I have never had a reason to sue the NHS but my cousin and DH's cousin have had reason too and were advised that they would probably have a case too. Not sure of the actual medical circumstances, my cousin had a baby that was still born, DH's cousin was expecting twins, one was still born the other is severely disabled. But they both decided not to sue, because they could cope and at the end of the day what good would it actually do. This compensation culture is going crazy and will make it difficult for us to do so many things in the future.

furrycat · 17/01/2008 09:11

This makes me so furious. Chances are she got the infection because of low staffing levels, staff being rushed off their feet etc - basically due to lack of money. So what does she do? Take even more money out of the system, increasing the likelihood of it happening to someone else. Don't get me wrong, I feel very sorry for her, but I assume they are millionaires anyway. I agree with NoIhaventChangedMyName about the people who really deserve the cash

ruty · 17/01/2008 09:34

yes thankfully 2shoes it seems children who have suffered negligence will get legal aid. Adults such as needmorecoffee will not. I do not doubt Ash suffered tremendously. But it is simply not fair that so many other people will not get fair or equal treatment.

ruty · 17/01/2008 09:34

yes thankfully 2shoes it seems children who have suffered negligence will get legal aid. Adults such as needmorecoffee will not. I do not doubt Ash suffered tremendously. But it is simply not fair that so many other people will not get fair or equal treatment.

ruty · 17/01/2008 09:35

Many people acquire MRSA and few I think get awarded anything, if they can afford to sue that is.

Peachy · 17/01/2008 10:12

'poor hand washing (eg surgeons not using hibiscrub or washing hands properly and going from patient to patient)and I'm not sure how investing money would solve this.'

Oh I can quite easily see how.

Currently every Dr position is over subscribed as a result of the Government failing to get OCurt permission to give UK trainees the places, yes? How about EVERY applicant is screened with psychometric testing for their ability to follow basic hygiene procedures as part of the interview system? It might just help recruit medics that can be arsed to wash their ahnds, and that in itself is so important in hospital hygiene.

And it would preseumably cost far less than the compensations.

I trained as a Nurse and we had so much training on hand washing- but it was a generallya ccepted fact that most poeple would ignore the advice.

Invest money to buy those lights that check for cleanliness on the hands and make unwashed hands a sackable ofence as well.

The NHS is governed not by Nurses and Dr's, but by managers who respond to only one thing- money.

I'm not sure if I would always sue, I have a close friend who lost her daughter as a direct result of an admitted NHS eff up and she chose not to as she needed to move on, but also as she said she didn't have a lifetime of care costs. It seems as if Leslie Ash does face this and anyone who knows how much this can cost might understand better- it's over a decade since I worked in the industry, but one client I ahd was charged £600 a week basic costs for his care. That adds up.

Sobernow · 17/01/2008 10:16

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

saltire · 17/01/2008 10:20

sobernow - apparently so, it seems that the amount of money she was awarded is based on loss of earnings. Perhaps the disability she has also affects her speech

FioFio · 17/01/2008 10:22

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Wotzsaname · 17/01/2008 10:48

I don't think anyone would resent families from claiming for their children if the care and treatment was at fault.

I don't think the flow of the thread is nasty and think posts like ff's are interesting.

Buda · 17/01/2008 10:55

I would never resent any family from claiming for a child. But tbh I don't resent Leslie Ash from claiming either. And I don't think that how she was injured in the first place has anything to do with her claim for damages. I hope more people claim and get awarded large payouts.

Maybe then the gov/NHS will wake up to the fact that an awful lot of mistakes that are made in hospitals are as a result of over-stretched staff and cost cutting.

It can and has been argued that the UK can't now sustain the original ideals of the NHS system being free for all. It looks more and more like this is true.

I live overseas and have private health insurance. About 3 or 4 times in the last 6 or 7 years I have had cause to go to a GP in the UK while visiting. I can pay. I would like to pay. I have insurance. But there is no system in place so that I CAN pay.

If I go to the GP in Ireland - it costs me 50 Euros.

Mog · 17/01/2008 11:01

She might have been awarded the money fairly, but it is obscene for her to keep it. She should donate it back, or at least a chunk of it. Her and her dh have loads of other business interests, they are hardly going to starve.
It's greed if she keeps it.

Peachy · 17/01/2008 11:03

How would we ever know if she had kept it? She may have doanated all abck; presumably a alrge amount went straight to her legal advisors anyway?

bundle · 17/01/2008 11:03

the amount awarded doesn't include her £250,000 costs. apparently.

yurt1 · 17/01/2008 11:08

The place that ds1 will (hopefully) spend his adult years costs 300 quid a day. The council are going to fight paying that (know that already). If people have been the victims of cock ups of course they should be awarded compensation - it gives choices.

A child locally has care needs considerably higher (and presumably more expensive) than ds1. Her disability was caused by a hospital birth cock-up. Currently she has to wait 18 months to get a sodding wheelchair - with compensation presumably her parents could access equipment and services themselves and not have to go to the press every time their dd needs some basic equipment. The NHS caused her disability and is not providing the care she needs now.

Peachy · 17/01/2008 11:13

Exactly yurt, and of course it takes so long to process- the family I know, Mum died at birth, daugter was OK until a vaccination injury caused severe quad CP; dad obviously handed in his life at that very moment, and it took them over a decade to get compensation, during which Dad was forced to make the equipment she needed out of whatever he could beg off people- as well as losing a career (one which was in a techno field so a year out may as well be a lifetime etc)- I don't know what LA's costs are and I don't need to BUT until you're faced with something like this you can't possibly imagine the expense involved.

yurt1 · 17/01/2008 11:20

Vaccine damage compensation is particularly hard to get (mind you so is birth injuries- both seem to involve the immediate 'loss' of notes )

FioFio · 17/01/2008 11:30

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yurt1 · 17/01/2008 11:36

My dad's notes (nuclear submariner) went missing as well- all the ones form the time he spent on subs. Funny that.

contentiouscat · 17/01/2008 11:44

I think 5m is a lot, shes not exactly Meryl Streep is she - just a pretty blonde OK actress but I guess that "type" of actress has a limited shelf life and she has been unable to work for a proportion of that time. I would imagine her payout is relative to the quality and amount of legal representation she has been able to supply...whereas you or I would have had to give up as we couldnt afford to pay the legal fees she could.

The annoying thing is that again this will be indirectly be paid for by you and I and not by the people who should be ensuring our hospitals are clean. I mean you dont exactly have to be a genious to know that someone wandering about with a buckets of brown water and rubbing a dirty mop from one area to another is not going to "clean" is it. When DS was in hospital we were horrified by the attitude to cleaning.

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