Accident and Emergency Departments provide round the clock care to patients with symptoms of acute illness and injury across the whole age spectrum. Medical staff have to make life-saving decisions and quick diagnoses in often difficult and high pressure circumstances.
Accident and Emergency treatment is fast moving and there should be adequate risk assessment measures in place to ensure that A&E staff are properly trained to deal with common emergencies and that proper medical care is given. The increasing sophistication of medicine means that, with adequate treatment, we can expect excellent outcomes. However whilst in most cases, care is of a high standard, there are times when things go wrong and mistakes can be made which have far reaching and even devastating consequences for patients and their families.
Below are just a few examples of errors which can occur in Accident & Emergency departments:-
- Mistakes in taking a patient’s history
- Lack of or inadequate physical examination of a patient
- Misdiagnosis or delay in correct diagnosis
- Failure to carry out investigations such as x-rays, scans or blood tests correctly
- Misinterpretation or loss of the results of investigations such as x-rays, scans or blood tests
- Failure to admit a patient for further investigation
- Failure to refer a patient to a specialist, where appropriate
- Delay in treatment or incorrect treatment
- Failure to re-assess to advise a patient to seek further medical attention in certain circumstances following discharge
- Mistakes during surgical or procedures
- Inadequate post-operative care
Our specialist medical negligence solicitors have particular experience of achieving strong results in cases where injuries have been caused due to mistakes made in A&E.
