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

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

£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

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

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

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

£125,000 recovered in botched cholecystectomy case

£125,000 recovered in botched cholecystectomy case

During 2003, our client, Mr G, from Canterbury, was admitted to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital at Canterbury and diagnosed with pancreatitis.  Conservative management was advised.

Late in 2008, he presented with abdominal pain and jaundice.  He was seen at the QEQM Hospital in Margate where, early in 2009, endoscopic ultrasound scanning showed gallstones.Continue reading this article

Mental health worker called patient ‘a waste of space’

Mental health worker called patient ‘a waste of space’

Staff member at Antelope House called Hannah Groves ‘a waste of space’ before she took her own life

A MENTAL health worker described a woman as a “waste of space” in a foul mouthed outburst just hours before the woman took her own life, an inquest heard.

Hannah Groves wanted treatment at a specialist mental health unit in Southampton after saying she wanted to kill herself but she was told there was no space.Continue reading this article

Speaking out about Mental Health bed closures in East Kent

Speaking out about Mental Health bed closures in East Kent

Nick Fairweather was invited to speak, on behalf of the firm, on BBC Radio Kent this morning, concerning alarming figures secured by the station under Freedom of Information Requests made of the Kent and Medway Social Care Partnership Trust.

The data shows a seven fold increase in expenditure on private out of area hospital facilities at an average cost of £8,000 per patient.Continue reading this article

NHS Private Treatment Case settles

NHS Private Treatment Case settles

Our client, Mrs S, suffered from increasingly painful and problematic bunions and was referred to the QEQM for day surgery over the summer of 2008.

In the August of that year she was offered an early operation at the Spencer Wing, a private wing at the QEQM, as part of an NHS waiting list reduction initiative, and she proceeded to surgery there in October 2008. The surgery failed despite revision operations in February 2010 and May 2011. Mrs S was left with constant severe pain in both feet.Continue reading this article