General News | Fairweather Solicitors LLP

£50,000 recovered for dispensing error.

Our client, a 75 year old woman, was provided with a repeat prescription for a range of medication including Raloxifene. Unfortunately, when this prescription was filled at the Valley Pharmacy (Croydon), Arcoxia was dispensed instead of the Raloxifene.

Our client did not notice the dispensing error and took the Arcoxia tablets for around 7 days, which resulted in her passing black diarrhoea. It was then discovered that our client had been taking the wrong medication and she was seen by her GP who diagnosed an internal bleed caused by the medication.Continue reading this article

£60,000 recovered for failure to remove retained guide wire

Our client, Mr B, was admitted to the intensive therapy unit at the QEQM Hospital, MArgate, Kent suffering from acute pancreatitis.

A guide wire from a femoral central line inserted after admission was left in situ. The line should not have been left in and should have been detected before Mr B was discharged from hospital.Continue reading this article

Warnings issued about serious concerns at Medway Maritime Hospital’s maternity department

In our article dated 16.07.2013 we reported that Medway NHS Foundation Trust had been placed into special measures following the Keogh Review.

The Trust was one of 11 hospitals across the country to have this drastic action taken.

Today it has been reported that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has issued three formal warnings to the Trust, including that it must take immediate action to improve the safety and welfare of women giving birth at Medway Maritime Hospital.Continue reading this article

£35,000 recovered for lost spleen

Following our previous article relating to this claim, dated 27.03.13, in which we confirmed that liability had been admitted by the Medway NHS Foundation Trust, we are now pleased to report that a good settlement has been achieved for our client who lives in Gillingham, Kent.Continue reading this article

Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman’s Report on Debbie Westwick’s case – Media Coverage

We reported, in our last article, on the outcome of the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation into Debbie Westwick’s breast cancer care and into the handling of her complaints by the East Kent NHS Foundation Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Within that article we acknowledge the importance of media coverage.Continue reading this article

Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman Produces Damning Report in Debbie Westwick’s Breast Cancer Care Complaint Case

The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman has now produced a report dealing with the complaints of our client, Debbie Westwick, in relation to the breast cancer treatment she received from the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and the East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The details of Debbie’s case have appeared in previous news articles.Continue reading this article

£56,200 recovered for foot drop

Our client, a 69 year old man, from Hythe in Kent, underwent a left total hip replacement (THR) at the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, Kent.

Unfortunately, during that surgery, an injury was caused to his sciatic nerve which resulted in a foot drop and which had a significant impact on his day to day activities and his hobbies of cycling and ballroom dancing.Continue reading this article

Fairweathers ‘Bucks Trend’ on PII renewal again

With the Law Society Gazette headline article this week reading “HUNDREDS ON THE EDGE AS PII RENEWAL DATE LOOMS”, we are pleased to announce that we have secured a reduction in premium for the third year running (of 6.57%, this comparing with 4.9% last year and 2.12% the previous year).Continue reading this article

Sunday Times: Suicide girl branded ‘waste of space’ by NHS

Article by James Gillespie Published: 15 September 2013.

A CORONER has condemned an NHS mental health team, which had dismissed a suicidal 20-year-old student as an “effing waste of space” hours before she took her own life.

For nine days Hannah Groves, who was studying French at Southampton University, made repeated requests to be admitted to the Antelope House mental health unit in the city, warning that she wanted to kill herself.Continue reading this article

Mental health service slammed after Hannah Groves took her own life

A CORONER has delivered a damning assessment of a mental health service’s actions in the days before a young Hampshire woman took her own life.

The risk to the safety of Hannah Groves was “not adequately identified” in the run-up to her tragic death, Southampton Coroner Keith Wiseman said this morning.

The 20-year-old had requested treatment at a mental health unit in Southampton after making several attempts to take her own life in the week before she died.Continue reading this article