On 7 April 2023 – World Health Day – the World Health Organisation (WHO) will celebrate its 75th birthday. The day is being used as an opportunity to look back at public health successes that have improved quality of life during the last seven decades.
Closer to home, the NHS will celebrate its 75th birthday in July 2023. They too state that they will be looking back on the achievements of the NHS and the opportunities that they have to shape the future.
It is important that we continue to support the core principles of the NHS that care, at source, should be free of charge and available to everyone, but it has long been the opinion of many that the NHS has been badly run and is not fit for purpose. There is no doubt that there have been valid criticisms of the NHS system, and those criticisms are continuing.
Years of under-investment and then the COVID pandemic have left many areas of the NHS struggling.
This year the NHS has already faced criticism for failing to meet waiting time targets. In February 2023, The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that NHS waiting times targets are unable to be met this year. The statistics seem to show that almost all areas of the NHS are subject to significant delay.
Combine those sorts of statistics with the constant “bad news” stories about the NHS, and it seems as though this relatively young company is in turmoil.
We know that when medical care goes wrong, when there are significant delays in providing care, or when it is simply not available where you live, there can be significant and devastating outcomes.
Melanie Lidstone-Land, Senior Associate in the Personal Injury department, says:
“I appreciate that the NHS is an organisation that provides primary and secondary care for all free of charge, and I understand that having that service is a unique and privileged position to be in, BUT the NHS is under immense pressure and is not infallible. Mistakes are made, delays are continuing, and it is only right, therefore, that it is held accountable for those mistakes. That is my job as a clinical negligence lawyer. It cannot be that the NHS is allowed to build year-on-year delays, significantly extended waiting lists and failures to treat patients who are in dire need – if they do, they are not fulfilling their own principles and, worse than that, they put lives at risk.”
Lester Aldridge specialises in clinical negligence cases, and we pursue all types of claims against NHS treatment providers. Our specialist team deal with these cases efficiently and with empathy, all the while concentrating on securing significant amounts of damages for our clients.
Some examples of the cases we are currently pursuing:
- Birth injury claims
- Brain injury cases
- Avoidable strokes
- Delayed diagnosis of cancer and other serious illness
- Serious orthopaedic injuries
For more information and for a full range of our expert services, please visit our page, Personal Injury & Medical Negligence or contact Melanie at melanie.lidstone-land@LA-law.com if you would like advice on making a claim.
