It is not news to say that Covid-19 caught everyone off guard.
The NHS had a difficult job to adapt their processes and priorities to handle this pandemic as best they could within a very short space of time. The NHS and its workers should be applauded for their role in responding to the threat. We thank them all.
It has now been a few months since the height of the crisis. As the threat of Covid-19 is starting to abate, there is a growing need to start ensuring that treatment for non-Covid related conditions, put on hold at the outset of the crisis, is no longer delayed. This treatment needs to progress as quickly as possible back to its norm. Failure to do so will lead to catastrophic consequences for those patients and their families.
Cancer treatments (as well as care for other life threatening conditions such as heart conditions, infections and diabetes), were and indeed are still, badly disrupted. As the pressure on the NHS is easing in terms of Covid-19, it is important that these treatments are reinstated and commenced, urgently.
There is also a growing fear that non-Covid patients have slipped through the net, perhaps negligently so. Perhaps their condition was not identified or the severity of the condition not appreciated. It is now imperative that these patients are identified and treated.
You may be considering whether or not to claim against the NHS given their immense pressures. Please rest assured that we are not looking to burden the NHS with a ‘perfect care’ ideal that simply does not exist.
Ultimately, if the treatment received was not gold standard, but reasonable, then the claim, quite rightly, will not succeed. The ideal we strive for is ‘reasonable’ care. That is the care received is one that any doctor faced with the same situation would have provided. If the care falls below this standard, and this led to an injury over and above that which you would have suffered in any event, then this is negligent and you are owed compensation.
Clinical Negligence claims are not simple, and nor should they be. A patient has numerous hurdles to overcome to show their care was unreasonable.
Furthermore, not only must you show that the treatment you received was unreasonable based on conditions at that time, but also that you suffered an injury over and above that which you would have had in any event. This is all subject to the most rigorous expert evidence.
At Clime Associates, we have the expertise to explain this complicated process and advise you every step of the way.
