Date: 24 October 2011
Author: Ben Ward

A health board in Scotland has apologised to a patient who developed a pressure sore while recovering from an operation reports the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-15375149

At Ashton KCJ we see numerous cases of elderly patients, and patients who have temporary or permanent mobility, developing pressure sores through a general lack of care being implemented within hospitals, care homes and nursing homes at all levels. Failings can occur at all stages of a patient’s stay, whether it be as a result of poor risk assessing, sub-standard care plans or lack of implementation of care procedures. It is not acceptable that patients continue to suffer from what are such avoidable mistakes in general everyday care.

Ben Ward, a medical injury solicitor at Ashton KCJ, says: “It is a shame that on this occasion the patient had to take their complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s Office. Such denials on behalf of hospitals only serve to increase the feelings of frustration that a patient has when they have endured this type of substandard care. If more responsibility and acknowledgment of errors were made within the NHS, this would surely serve to reduce the legal costs involved with litigation”.