We are moving…

Thank you to all subscribers, followers and readers of Waldrons Solicitors blog.

We have decided to migrate this blog to our own website and we will no longer be posting updates on WordPress. You can still keep up-to-date by visiting www.waldrons.co.uk/blog. This current WordPress blog will remain here but all future blog posts from Waldrons will appear on the new blog on our website.

If you subscribe by email we will not automatically add you to the subscription list for our new blog. If you would still like to receive updates by email, please email s.grosvenor@waldrons.co.uk with the subject line “Subscribe to Waldrons Blog” and we will continue to send updates by email.

The Waldrons Blogging Team

A Nation of Shopkeepers?

“L’Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers.” so said an angry man from Corsica once. But Napoleon, when describing us as a “Nation of Shopkeepers”, might have just misdescribed us a little according to a recent report.

The report from the British Retail Consortium, suggested that we are in fact a nation of shoplifters.

Well, looking at the full statistics, to describe us as a nation of shoplifters is a bit strong and in fact the report didn’t describe us as such at all, but involve the press and you have headlines suggesting that one in five of us is not averse to leaving a shop without paying for everything.

The particular reason cited for this is the rise of the self service till. “Unexpected item in bagging area”, seems to translate as “Please pick me up and wander out without paying for me”, for a surprising number of people.

The statistics suggest that this is amounting to a staggering £1700,000,000.00 a year.

If it is one in five of us who are doing that, it means that there are at least two of them in my road and I can’t work out who, as everyone seems very nice to me.

From the legal perspective, the fine minds in our Criminal Department have suggested that saying you couldn’t get the scanner to work, is unlikely to amount to a very strong legal defence if the store security spot you with an undisclosed box of fondant fancies nestling in the bottom of your shopping bag. If the stats are to be believed however, that doesn’t seem to put of those people who take the self service line at the supermarket a bit too literally.

Will this mean an increased number of store securtiy standing by the tills, or even more incognito undercover supermarket sleuths, or just an annoying increase in shopping bills for the 80% of us in the majority?

We wait to see what happens.

Adrian Witt

The Magic of 50

50 can be regarded as quite an important number. It is the number of runs that most England batsmen could only dream of in the recent Test series in Australia. It is the number of Shades of Grey that someone has made a tidy living out of describing and according to Paul Simon it is the number of ways to leave your lover.

For a number of people outed in the response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it is the number of times each year that they visit A&E.

A quite surprising 12,000 visited the same A&E Department at least 10 times during the year. That is not that there is one very busy A&E department hosting the same 12,000 visitors at least 10 times each during any given year but rather that there are 12,000 people, each of whom visited an A&E department and returned to that same A&E department a further 9 times during last year.

Their efforts however are frankly pathetic in comparison to the herculean efforts of about 150 souls who managed an average of just shy of a visit a week to A&E. Now I have been a PI Lawyer for 18 years and so I have seen my fair share of unfortunates who have had an accident and on occasions over that period, maybe more than one accident, yet none of those people come close to the numbers of the 150.

In any cohort of people however, there are always the stand out individuals. We can only imagine what reasons lay behind the 223 times someone went to the Northern General hospital in Sheffield.

The top performer identified was someone at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital who managed a quite incredible 234 visits during the year. Reports that he is  in fact the Chief of Emergency Medicine at the trust and simply clocks in at the wrong desk are not believed to be accurate. 

How will these people fare in 2014?

We wait to see what happens.

Adrian Witt

Sir Ian Kennedy’s Review of Breast Care Services at Solihull Hospital

Today has seen the publication of the report by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy about the review into breast care services at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and in particular the role of Mr Ian Paterson, a breast surgeon who worked at the hospital.

This is something about which we have reported many times in the past.

The review is damming of the Trust, its former management and of Mr Paterson personally.

It highlights missed opportunities in 2003 and 2007 to stop Mr Paterson from what he was doing, which at its most fundamental level was to put at risk women who had already suffered from breast cancer.

To quote from a section of the Executive Summary of the full report, Sir Ian Kennedy says:

“It is a story of women faced with a life threatening disease who have been harmed. It is a story of clinicians at their wits’ ends trying for years to get the Trust to address what was going on. It is a story of clinicians going along with what they knew to be poor performance. It is a story of weak and indecisive leadership from senior managers. It is a story of secrecy and containment. It is a story of a Board which did not carry out its responsibilities. It is a story of a surgeon who chose on occasions to operate on women in a way unrecognised by his peers and thereby exposed them to harm.”

The website on which the full report is published can be found here.

Nicola Lewis

Mentioned in Dispatches

On Monday 11th November, Channel 4 investigation programme, Dispatches reported on Mr Ian Paterson, the Consultant Surgeon based at Solihull and a couple of Spire Hospitals, in relation to his activities.

It reported about the seemingly unauthorised procedure of a “Cleavage Sparing Mastectomy” that he had been carrying out at Solihull Hospital and also reported on the other activities, principally carried out at Spire private hospitals where women were given wholly unnecessary surgery or indeed multiple surgeries.

The programme reported that the activities of Mr Paterson had been brought to the attention of Mr Paterson’s employers at the Heart of England NHS Trust and that as a result, Mr Paterson had given undertakings to his employers not to carry out certain procedures in the future. He seems to have flouted this.

Similarly there was a report in the programme that a GP had raised concerns about Mr Paterson’s activities and in particular a suggestion that he was carrying out unnecessary surgical procedures. This information was communicated to the Spire Hospitals where Mr Paterson also worked.

The programme, entitled “Can You Trust Your Surgeon?” examined how and why it was that Mr Paterson was able to carry on his activities for as long as he did.

Having been at the forefront of the actions on behalf of dozens of women and families affected by Mr Patersons actions, and having been consulted by the programme about our experiences in dealing with the many cases arising from the actions of Mr Paterson, it was reassuring to see that the matter was being investigated by Dispatches and hopefully the lessons will have been learned such that this does not happen again.

The Hospital’s own report from Sir Ian Kennedy is due to be published shortly and again it will be interesting to see his conclusions.

 

Nicola Lewis

 

Cost of Birthing Injury Mistakes

The cost of making negligent medical mistakes which lead to birthing injuries, including cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy and in some cases fatal injuries, has been reviewed by the National Audit Office. It has been stated that nearly £500m was spent last year on compensation for clinical negligence involving birthing injuries in the nation’s labour wards.

It has been said that for every live birth in the NHS, £700 is spent on cover against such claims. The chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee has criticised this expenditure, and told the BBC that the NHS would need to take responsibility to improve its services significantly in order to avoid such sums being paid.

The Department of Health has responded by saying that the NHS is one of the safest places in the world in which to give birth, but the figures released do cause some concern. There may be many reasons behind such expenditure, such as increases in the number of births, increases in the number of claims brought and increases in the levels of compensation involved. 

Luckily, there don’t appear to be any government plans to limit the number of births per person (let’s not hold our breath). The number of claims brought could have increased because of a better public knowledge of claiming for clinical negligence, which itself is a relatively new area of law. The levels of compensation are bound to increase over time, particularly with compensation for things such as life-long care involved in a birthing injury case where the carer’s wages increase every year along with inflation.

However, the main reason for the increase in expenditure is because of negligent treatment. If the treatment stops being negligent, the claims and costs stop too.  Claims are only ever successful in cases where negligent treatment has been given. As Solicitors, we appreciate that we cannot live in a perfect world where every treatment given is of a gold standard, but the clients with whom we deal  on a day to day basis, have received negligent treatment which is far below this gold standard.

The best way to stop throwing money at claims of, and cover for, clinical negligence is instead to throw money at the services provided, with better facilities, more staff and improved knowledge.

We will need to wait and see whether the NHS agrees with us.

 

Joseph Norton

Worcester expansion for Waldrons

Waldrons celebrates its expansion in Worcester (L to R) Sarah Richards, James Rogers, Judith Guest, Luke Boxall and Janet Jager.

Waldrons is strengthening its presence in Worcester after acquiring the assets of Lumsdons Solicitors’ Worcester office, and resulting in an expansion of its range of services in the city.

Waldrons – established in 1867 and now with offices across the West Midlands – first opened its doors in Worcestershire three years ago after identifying a lack of specialist clinical negligence lawyers in the region.

Recently, this has been supplemented with immigration law through the company’s international services team.

Previously based in St. Mary’s Street, Waldrons will now operate from Lumsdons’ former offices at The Tything and will bring to Worcester expertise in many areas of law including employment, property, family, wills, probate, inheritance protection, and corporate law.

The deal also sees the arrival of family law specialists James Rogers and Luke Boxall to Waldrons, as well as trainee solicitor Lucy Thorpe-Gunner.

James and Luke share a particular expertise in divorce and financial settlements following relationship breakdown as well as arrangements for children.

Lucy will continue her training with the Waldrons’ business services team.

Waldrons’ commitment to the highest standards of service is demonstrated by the company’s coveted Lexcel quality mark which is awarded by the Law Society only to firms of solicitors who meet the exacting Lexcel standards of excellence in customer care.

John Roberts, Managing Director of Waldrons, said: “We have been encouraged by the positive response we’ve had since becoming established in Worcester.

We see this expansion as a natural progression for our company and we are pleased to be able to offer an additional choice of legal services in the region.

We are particularly looking forward to working with James and Luke to build upon their expertise in family law as well as complementing this with the legal services that we offer from our other offices, some of which will be new services not previously available in Worcester.”

The news of Waldrons’ expansion comes at a time when the Law Society reports that up to 153 law firms nationwide may have to close after being unable to secure professional indemnity insurance.

Commenting on this, Mr Roberts said: “It is a difficult marketplace for any business in the current climate and particularly for law firms.

Our commitment to providing our clients with the best possible service has meant that Waldrons has been able to build upon our success and to grow.

The anticipated growth of our business in Worcester will be the result of our staff providing the same high standards to the people of Worcester that we consistently provide from our other offices.”

 

Problems at A&E Continue to Gather Pace

Accident and Emergency doctors have warned that patients are at risk under the current A&E system. The College of Emergency Medicine spoke to over 1,000 doctors and found that many were growing increasingly concerned about the state of emergency medicine within the NHS.

A massive 94% complained that they were working too many hours, many working well in excess of what they were contracted for. Whist this may not be headline news, the impact of this can be immense. Doctors working more hours to cover staff shortages is seemingly rife, with statistics showing that the average number of A&E consultants is seven per unit when that figure should be at least ten per unit.

Waiting times being on the increase whilst doctors are on the decrease seems to be the message coming across. The NHS is heading into winter with dire warnings and urgent recommendations about the state of play in emergency medicine. Whilst the government has agreed to inject £500m of additional funding into hospitals to help with the keeping of A&E departments over the next two winters, questions must be asked as to whether this is enough.

We wait to see what happens.

 

Joseph Norton

Dudley Hospital Included in Keogh Report

Dudley Hospital, Russells Hall, was included in a recent report by Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director at NHS England. Luckily, it escaped the “special measures” enforced at other hospitals, however it was criticised for its handling of pressure sores.

The Keogh review came about after the inquiry into standards at Stafford Hospital. 14 Trusts, including The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust which runs Russells Hall Hospital, were included in the review. 11 of those were placed on ‘special measures’ whereby stringent checks and measures will be introduced in order to try and improve slipping standards.

Various problems were identified at the Dudley Trust, most notably inconsistency over pressure sore care. It was recommended that the Trust review its processes in order to ensure that appropriate equipment and care is provided to patients who are at high risk of developing pressure sores. These sores are caused by prolonged pressure on a particular part of the skin, which subsequently breaks down and ulcerates. They can sometimes be difficult to treat, but are often easily prevented with the use of ripple mattresses and turn charts.

The review noted that the Trust is clearly focused on improving quality and patient experience. We hope that this positive finding is the used as encouragement for the Trust, and despite the failings identified those involved are able to work towards a better future for healthcare in Dudley.

We wait to see what happens.

 

Joseph Norton

Independence Day: Happy 4th of July

–>To say that the USA will be celebrating today is an understatement.

4^th July marks the day in 1776 that the former British colonies in what is now the USA declared independence from the UK and was the birth of the United States of America. Surprisingly, celebrations of Independence Day became commonplace only after the war of 1812 and became a federal holiday after a law was passed by Congress in 1870. Americans all over the world now celebrate on 4^th July every year. It is arguably the world’s most celebrated “national day” expressing patriotism and is a reminder of the start of a Nation.

If, as an American, you are reading this…Happy 4^th of July!

It has been debated that the UK should have a similar “national day” and that St. George’s Day should be a Bank Holiday. Whatever the arguments for and against, it would certainly be nice to have one day a year where we celebrate “Britishness” in a similar way to the celebrations that our American cousins celebrate.

On a smaller scale, independence as a concept for individuals can be a cause for celebration but can often be a time of difficulties. Speaking from a legal perspective, we often see individuals who has been granted a visa to live in the UK gains the independence to choose whether to live in the UK or their country of origin – a happy time and a cause of celebration. Shareholders selling shares in a company can be happy or disheartened following the independence they have gained from that company. Couples who divorce and therefore gain independence from their spouse have usually had a difficult time and independence in this form can sometimes be the right thing obtained in the most difficult of circumstances. Someone who has suffered injuries or illnesses following an accident or medical negligence are awarded compensation which can help them maintain independence – an incredibly difficult and very upsetting time for the individuals concerned.

As lawyers, we see daily how individual people gain or maintain independence in some form or another, not always in the happiest of circumstances. As with many things in life, independence can be a double-edged sword but, for today, the USA shows the world how independence can be a cause for celebration…maybe the UK could follow their lead.

Vote in our poll: Should we have a “national day” in the UK?

+ Steven Grosvenor