Watchdog report deems three in four hospitals unsafe

Posted 15/10/2015

A report has today been disclosed which confirms that three in four hospitals are failing. Hospitals are now given Ofsted-style rankings which determine whether a hospital is outstanding, good, requires improves or inadequate. This information is broken down in categories which addresses various factors including leadership and patient safety.

In this recent report, 76 per cent of NHS hospital trusts have been given an overall rating of inadequate or requiring improvement.

Watchdogs said their greatest concern was safety, with three quarters of hospitals branded unsafe.

This news came only a couple of weeks after the report reminding us that the NHS has been plunged into its worst financial crisis for a generation.

Sharon Allison, a Medical Injury Lawyer at Ashtons Legal says: “Whilst not wishing to scaremonger the general public, these statistics are very worrying. To address some of these inadequacies, it is going to cost money which the NHS doesn’t have. What is even more worrying is that if you are unfortunate enough to have suffered a medical injury which are often as a result of unsafe practices, the government are trying to impose a change to the civil litigation in imposing fixed legal fees for cases under £250,000.

For the lower end of the bracket, many law firms will avoid taking on these sorts of cases as they simply will not be commercially viable. They often involve fatal cases or concern vulnerable categories of client such as the elderly.

I find it astonishing that whilst the Government acknowledges that a vast majority of these hospitals are unsafe and there is no money to rectify it, they are prepared to rush through proposals that will mean the most vulnerable people in our society will have no access to justice”

If you have a query about a medical injury please contact Sharon Allison on sharon.allison@ashtonslegal.co.uk or call 01842 768770. Click here for more information about our Medical Injury team.

Sharon Allison (pictured).