11th December 2014
Recent statistics from NHS England have shown that the NHS has come under unmitigated pressure earlier than ever this year as winter starts to set in, particularly in their Accident and Emergency departments.
28th November 2014
Giving birth is the most common reason to be admitted to hospital in England. The birth of a child should be one of the happiest and most memorable occasions of your life – but what happens if you are not given the help and support you need from a trained professional? There is one apparent issue in maternity care; there simply are not enough midwives.
13th November 2014
A report by the Patient Association has found that half of the 1,200 people surveyed felt that their quality of care would be compromised if they made a complaint and almost as many said that their complaint was badly handled when complaining to the NHS.
3rd November 2014
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned that some A&E and maternity departments are so understaffed that patients are being put at risk.
28th October 2014
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has recently announced that the NHS will be bringing in an extra 260 doctors to help ease the pressures on accident and emergency services over winter.
23rd October 2014
Thousands of NHS frontline staff have recently staged a strike over pay for the first time in over 30 years.
16th October 2014
GP out-of-hours care is getting better, but inspectors have warned that improvements are still needed.
13th October 2014
For the first time in a decade every patient will get a GP that is accountable for their care, the health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.
30th September 2014
Following the public inquiry into the failings at Stafford Hospital, there was a huge drive to promote whistleblowing on malpractice in the NHS.
24th September 2014
When placing the care of family members into the hands of professionals, you could be forgiven for thinking that their every need will be catered for in a safe and comfortable environment. However, sometimes these standards are not met and it may be unclear who you can turn to.
17th September 2014
A recent study has found that some patients have gained consciousness during surgery. It is thought that in the UK and Ireland, more than 300 patients a year have felt some level of ‘awareness’ during an operation.
12th September 2014
Each pregnancy and birth is different and every experience is an extremely special event, both for the parents and their families. If the mother or baby sustains injuries or health problems during the birthing process, this could be a result of medical negligence should be investigated as soon as possible. At Fletchers Solicitors we are here to support you through the process of making a claim of negligence as we know the whole experience can be very upsetting and stressful.
28th August 2014
Doctors who make mistakes while delivering care to patients could face stronger punishments under wide-ranging new proposals to improve the healthcare system for patients.
21st August 2014
A spinal injury charity, that Fletchers is proud to support, has helped a 15 year old boy build up his confidence after he was left in a wheelchair following a serious accident.
14th August 2014
A heart surgeon has recently warned that by publishing the performance tables for individual surgeons, doctors could be deterred from taking on high-risk procedures.
8th August 2014
One in three British people have admitted to feeling confused after leaving their GP’s surgery following an appointment.
5th August 2014
GP surgeries in England are at breaking point with warnings that patients will be turned away over 50 million times in 2015 if changes aren’t made.
29th July 2014
It has recently been revealed that the amount paid out in damages by the NHS has tripled in the past year, under the Conservative government.
16th July 2014
Leading health figures have predicted that the NHS will require an additional 30bn in funding by 2020, to maintain current standards of care in the face of an increasing ageing population.
3rd July 2014
New government plans could see GPs who fail to spot the signs of cancer named publicly.
27th June 2014
NHS staff could be sent to jail if found guilty of ‘wilfully neglecting’ patients ahead of recent changes to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.
24th June 2014
The NHS has been named as the best healthcare system in the world by a panel of international experts, over other countries that spend considerably more on healthcare.
13th June 2014
The NHS has come under fire for failing young people with complex and longterm health problems during the transition to adult services, in a new report published by the Care Quality Commission.
9th June 2014
There is a debate at the moment about whether normal medical treatment is enough to meet the needs of patients, or whether we should be experimenting with radical new ‘experimental’ treatment.
2nd June 2014
We recently carried out some research which found that NHS frontline staff are spending more of their time dealing with patient complaints rather than concentrating on delivering vital care and treatment because bosses are failing to adequately deal with people’s grievances.
27th May 2014
With the recent NHS Change Day taking place, employees and users of the NHS have pledged to make a positive difference to the organisation.
20th May 2014
Around half of all deaths in England happen in hospitals so you’d expect an extremely high level of care from hospital staff in a patient’s last moments. But recent research has found that some dying patients do not receive proper care and are not treated with dignity in many NHS hospitals around the country.
14th May 2014
Recent reports from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons suggest that cosmetic surgery is ‘booming’ in the UK, with procedures such as breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks remaining some of the more popular surgeries.
25th April 2014
The birth of a new baby is a very special time for the whole family, however if things go wrong during the birth this happiness can be taken away in an instant. If the baby or mother is harmed due to medical negligence, a claim for compensation can be made to help overcome the adversity and alleviate the stress it can cause.
14th April 2014
A review into the performance of the NHS has found that the NHS in England is continuing to perform slightly better than the other UK nations, but the gap is getting smaller.
3rd April 2014
With the NHS facing a 30 billion deficit by 2020, there are many opinions about what needs to be done to ensure it has enough funding to be able to deliver the best in patient care.
24th March 2014
The NHS complaints system has come under fire again, this time from the patients watchdog, after it was revealed that up to 75 different types of organisations have a role in the complaints process.
14th March 2014
This week it’s been reported that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is to refuse a one per cent pay rise for over 1.3 million NHS workers, including nurses, paramedics, midwives and managers.
28th February 2014
London is one of the most famous cities in the world and there’s a reason that visitors flock there from all around the globe.
13th February 2014
Once again it’s almost time for NHS Change Day, when employees and users of our health service focus on pledges designed to make a positive difference to the organisation. The campaign itself has a nice story behind it, having grown from the grassroots rather than being a PR stunt designed by people in suits. But is it enough?
28th January 2014
Winter is well and truly with us and as usual it brings with it a legion of skiers and snowboarders jetting off to spend a week or two on the slopes. Most of them will wear ski helmets but some of them won’t, despite the recent publicity that’s resulted from Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher’s accident whilst skiing in the French Alps.
20th January 2014
One of the founding principles of the NHS is that patients should have an active say in how its services are run. Written into its constitution is the commitment that the “system of responsibility and accountability for taking decisions in the NHS should be transparent and clear to the public, patients and staff.”
7th January 2014
To say that the NHS had a bad time of it in 2013 is putting it mildly considering the wave of negativity which threatened to engulf it as the year wore on. Scandals about lack of resources, funding, whistleblowing and the type of individual cases of negligence which we see at Fletchers all made the headlines and it could be argued that the NHS finished the year in worse shape than ever before. So is it right to think that the only way is up? Can things get any worse or have we reached rock bottom?