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Clinical Negligence Solicitors

NHS staff may face “wilful neglect” criminal charge (18 November 2013)

Date: 18/11/2013
Duncan Lewis, Clinical Negligence Solicitors, NHS staff may face “wilful neglect” criminal charge

Changes in NHS guidance due to be announced by Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt this week are expected to make wilful neglect of patients by medical staff a criminal offence.

High profile cases such as the Mid Staffordshire Trust scandal have prompted a rethink of the NHS.

A penalty of five years’ imprisonment could be handed down to NHS staff found guilty of wilful neglect. A consultation is due to be carried out.

Doctors’ leaders are saying, however, that introducing a criminal charge for NHS staff who neglect patients may result in a climate of fear among health workers.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the prospect of being charged with a criminal offence could mean doctors and nurses become less reluctant to flag up incidences of patient neglect.

Co-chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee Dr Andrew Collier told the BBC that government proposals were “a headline grabbing exercise”.

“They don't need this new climate of fear – they don't need to be concerned that they may be sent to jail. What they need to do is learn from their mistakes and develop their practice.”

A review of patient safety by President Obama’s former adviser Professor Don Berwick said a criminal charge was needed to counteract the worst cases of a “couldn’t care less” attitude or “wilful or reckless neglect or mistreatment”.

Dr Collier said the introduction of criminal charges for wilful neglect in the NHS failed to address Prof Berwick’s recommendations that minimum staffing levels should be set, as well as a change of culture in patient care in the NHS.

Former Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley ordered a full public inquiry into the trust in June 2010 and the report was published in February 2013. The public inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Francis QC.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has agreed that a criminal charge for wilful neglect should be introduced, along with a package of proposals suggested in the inquiry report, including setting minimum staffing levels.

Chairman of the Royal College of GPs Dr Maureen Baker said:

“Doctors, nurses – we are human. Human beings make mistakes. You can't change the human condition, but you can help support the humans in having systems around them that help keep them safe, caring and compassionate.”

The daughter of a patient who died at Mid Staffordshire Trust said it was time to put patients first. Julie Bailey was branded a whistleblower after flagging up issues at the Mid Staffordshire Trust. Ms Bailey’s 86-year-old mother Bella died while in the care of the trust.

Ms Bailey founded the campaign group Cure the NHS and has welcomed the government’s proposal to make wilful neglect of patients a criminal charge.

“Now it's time for patients' safety to be a priority,” she said.

Personal injury and medical negligence

Medical negligence is covered by an area of the law known as personal injury and can include surgery gone wrong, prescription errors, birth injuries to babies and their mothers, misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, surgical instruments left inside a patient after operations – and healthcare which is neglectful and causes harm to the patient, such as not giving a patient prescribed medications or water.

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of personal injury lawyers and can advise on all types of personal injury cases, including failures in NHS care, road traffic accidents, accidents at work and holiday accidents.

Contact Duncan Lewis personal injury lawyers on 020 7923 4020.


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