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Common reasons why you may attend A&E
- Major Trauma (such as Road Traffic Accidents)
- Severe headache
- Loss of consciousness / severe dizziness
- Severe Bleeding
- Cardiac Arrest / Chest Pain
- Injury (such as head /brain injury, broken bones, burns / scalds, wounds / cuts)
- Stroke
- Breathing Difficulties
- Fever over 40 degrees Celsius
- Poisoning / Overdose
- Allergic Reaction
- Infectious Disease
- Gastrointestinal emergency
- Emergency Obstetric / gynaecological issue
- Paediatric (children’s) emergency
- ENT (Ear, Nose Throat) emergency
- Serious Mental Health emergency
The highly skilled healthcare professionals working within the A&E Department are at the front line of health provision in the UK. Staff carry out the immediate assessment, diagnosis, recommendation and then management of treatment of a huge spectrum of serious and often life-threatening injury and illness. It is a fast-paced and highly-pressured working environment. Healthcare professionals are often overworked and understaffed working under increasing challenging, demanding conditions.
Most patients who attend A&E do get the quality treatment they require but unfortunately mistakes do occur and a minority of A&E attendances do result in clinical negligence. The number of clinical negligence claims in the UK exceed any other area of medicine claims.
A&E clinical negligence means the care you received on your visit to A&E made your illness worse or you acquired additional injury (short-term or long-term). Clinical negligence in A&E can result in devastating consequences or even death. When this happens you or your loved one may have a cause for an A&E clinical negligence claim.
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Common A&E Negligence claims
- Unreasonable delay in diagnosis
(This may be a failure to diagnosis and treat serious acute or critical illness rapidly, e.g. heart attack, sepsis, meningitis, stroke or cauda equine syndrome)
- Undiagnosed bone fractures / dislocations
- Undiagnosed underlying illness
- Inadequate investigations
(This may be failure to refer for tests such as X-rays, Scans, blood tests)
- Delay in treatment
- Incorrect treatment
- Poor treatment
- Failure to treat
- Failure to admit for surgery
- Misdiagnosis of illness
(Incorrect diagnosis could lead to an illness getting worse or even death)
- Incorrect recording of results leading to incorrect treatment
- Misinterpreted exam or test results
- Prescribing or administration of the incorrect medication
- Healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs)
(This covers a wide spectrum of infections including MRSA, C-Difficile, COVID-19, catheter associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, central line-associated blood stream infections)
- Injuries from falls (beds / trolleys / wheelchairs)
(This includes inadequate Risk Assessments)
- Inappropriate or premature discharge
- Sub-standard after-care
(This includes post-operative care)
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How we can help you claim for compensation for A&E Clinical Negligence
It can take courage and can initially feel daunting approaching a medical negligence solicitor. This is particularly so when wishing to challenge the treatment and care provided by a highly qualified professional such as a surgeon, who we hold in high regard and who we place our health and trust in.
It is important to appreciate that mistakes happen in any situation involving human beings, regardless of how well trained, skilled, experienced and caring they are. Where mistakes are made and harm is caused with regard to patient care there are consequences that may lead you to consider instructing a solicitor to bring legal action on your behalf.
You may not be considering financial compensation once medical negligence has arisen - you may want to make sure that nobody else experiences the same injury that you did. This is entirely understandable. As humans, we trust in the training and expertise of our healthcare professionals and don’t expect harm to be caused. Many patients want lessons to be learned to prevent further harm for others.
Pursuing a claim against a healthcare professional (public and private) does raise awareness. Pursuing a claim leads to investigation and scrutiny and consideration of existing policies and procedures and to further training. It also allows for a financial settlement to be awarded which places a patient in a better position than they may have otherwise been.
