Accident and Emergency claims

Examples of A&E medical negligence claims

A&E claims normally involve one or more of the following:

• not taking a proper history from you or giving the history sufficient clinical importance
• not examining you properly
• missing signs of deterioration
• failure to investigate – not ordering the correct tests or investigations (e.g. X-rays, scans and blood tests)
• mistakes interpreting test results and scans
• incorrectly diagnosing your condition or not diagnosing it quickly enough 
• missed diagnosis of serious conditions, for example:
  • sepsis;
  • gastro-intestinal conditions such as ischaemic, perforated or obstructed bowel;
  • heart attack;
  • aortic dissection or abdominal aortic aneurysm;
  • brain injury such as stroke; bleeding in the brain (brain haemorrhage)
  • meningitis
  • Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE);
  • Spinal conditions, such as traumatic spinal cord injury, tumour, haematoma, absence and cauda equina syndrome.
• missed fractures, such as fractures of the shoulder and elbow, wrist and hand; face; or hip, knee or foot and ankle
• giving you the wrong treatment (or no treatment), or wrong medication
• delayed management and treatment, including speciality reviews and missed therapeutic options
• failure to refer you to a different hospital department to be treated, which would be more appropriate 
• hospital acquired pressure ulcers, such as sacrum, buttock, heel, shoulder, scrotum, or calf sores
• falls in or around the Emergency Department
• not admitting you, sending you home and not letting you know you should come back to A&E if things don’t improve; this is known as ‘safety net advice’