Scandal of the Leicester waiting list patients
SCANDAL OF THE LEICESTER WAITING LIST PATIENTS
Call for compensation payments to be speeded up
When the government’s waiting list initiative comes under scrutiny in a Panorama Special tonight, the programme will feature a Leicester man whose knee operation was bungled.
Tony Painter (63) a bulldozer driver from Upper Bruntingthorpe, Lutterworth said:
“I agreed to having my knee replaced at the Birkdale clinic as part of an NHS waiting list initiative so that I wouldn’t have to wait long to get back to work. Instead of curing the problem, I am now in constant pain, have been unable to go back to work, and will shortly undergo a third replacement knee all within 18 months. It has had a profound effect on my life and I am disgusted that I have been left like this.”
Dr Darren Conway of Leicester solicitors Freeth Cartwright said:
“The position that Mr Painter and other patients who have also suffered adverse consequences at the Birkdale Clinic find themselves in is a scandal.
Normally NHS patients benefit from being able to claim compensation from the NHS when things go wrong.
Our investigations reveal that the Leicester Hospitals Trust entered into a private arrangement with the Birkdale Clinic without Government approval so patients it referred to the clinic under the waiting list initiative lost their NHS cover.
As the clinic claims that it does not actually employ any surgeons patients whose operations went wrong at the clinic have to trace and sue each individual doctor concerned.
Immediate steps should be taken by the Government to ensure that patients like Mr Painter are speedily compensated.”
ends - 30 September 2009
Notes for editors:
1. Freeth Cartwright LLP is a firm of specialist clinical negligence solicitors with wide experience of dealing with patients who have suffered at the hands of Independent Treatment centres - victims of the waiting list initiatives.
2. A Panorama special to be aired on BBC 1 on Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 8pm,” investigates a key Labour health policy that slashed waiting lists by using the private sector to treat NHS patients. Six years on, was it worth the price? Thousands benefited from fast-track operations, but bereaved families and senior surgeons say risks were taken with patient safety and millions of pounds wasted.”
3. Two of the cases highlighted in the programme - those of Terry Harris and Tony Painter are handled by Freeth Cartwright LLP.
4. On 15 December 2007 unknown to the Government the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust entered into an agreement with the Birkdale Clinic (Rotherham) Ltd for it to provide orthopaedic, plastic and maxillofacial surgery for patients referred to it by the Trust. Under the agreement the Clinic agreed to accept legal liability to indemnify the Trust against claims for negligence. The agreement did not specify that the Trust was liable to the individual patients.
5. The Birkdale Clinic in common with many other independent private clinics claims that it does not employ surgeons and is not therefore legally responsible for their negligence.
6. The common law makes an individual private surgeon responsible for negligence which affects his patient. In the NHS this responsibility is taken over by the Trust Hospital or PCT which are centrally insured by the NHS.
7. This means that where the NHS has not agreed to take responsibility a NHS patient referred to the Birkdale Clinic has to trace and sue the surgeon who operated on him.
Contacts:
Freeth Cartwright LLP: Jane Williams - 0116 248 1105/07977 446191
Dr Darren Conway - 0116 248 1162/0782 4621130
Paul Balen 0115 936 9388/0776 7673200