Injury Compensation News

Jim Reilly of Patient Focus has claimed today that international figures show that 4-16% of patients in hospitals are exposed to “potentially dangerous adverse events”.  Mr Reilly was speaking at a conference organised by the charity Action Against Medical Accidents. Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, claimed that more people are killed or permanently disabled in hospitals due to medical incidents than were injured in road traffic accidents.

State Claims Agency data for 2008 reveals that there were 83,661 “adverse incidents” recorded by Irish hospitals, where an medical incident could range from something as simply as slips, trips, and falls to more serious treatment errors such as medication errors.

The figures include both major and minor incidents ranging from slips, trips and falls to medication and treatment errors.  The figures also demonstrate how badly exposed the Irish health services are to medical negligence claims and hospital negligence claims.

Data from the State Claims Agency reveal that there were 8,250 ‘medication incidents’ (incorrect dosages or simply wrong medication given to patients), some 5,559 ‘treatment incidents’ (which includes mistakes like leaving surgical swabs in patients’ bodies after operations), and poor documentation (which lead to anything from a simple ‘near miss’ to a catastrophic incident).

The State Claims Agency runs a clinical indemnity scheme for Irish hospitals that paid out almost €50 million in medical negligence claims and hospital negligence claims last in 2009, with an average award of  €63,000.

The MRSA Group, multidisciplinary advisory group including microbiologists, hospital pharmacists, and patient advocates with funding from Pfiizer, has published a report  “Meticillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA) in Ireland: Addressing the Issues” . Shockingly, the report finds that patients who acquire infections in Irish hospitals are 7.1 times more like than uninfected patients to die in hospitals.

The report estimates that patients who acquire an infection in hospital stayed in hospital 2.5 times longer than other patients and that the cost of healthcare associated infections (HCAI) totalled €233.75 million a year.  This cost estimate does not include the cost of hospital negligence claims.   The report states that approximately one third of HCAIs are preventable, therefore the potential savings from all HCAI is €77 million. Again, this illustrates the potential level of liability for medical negligence claims for infections that should never have happened if the hospitals were properly run.

European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System data ranks Ireland fourth in Europe for MRSA bloodstream infection (BSI) rates at 33.1%.  This infection rate is significantly higher than in many other EU countries.

There are some factors causing HCAI that are specific to individual patients such as age, surgical wounds, use of medical devices, illness severity, and length of stay in hospital. These factors are the same in all countries in Europe, so Ireland’s high rate of hospital infections is due to the way the hospitals are managed.  The factors under the control and responsibility of the hospitals include poor hand-hygiene, overuse of antimicrobials, contaminated equipment, delays in patient isolation, low staff-patient ratios (which strongly influences quality of care), and the availability of isolation facilities (for patients at risk).

There is a lot of discussion about the degradation of hygiene in Irish hospitals.  The cleaning staff are now heavily unionised and often blamed for a work-to-rule attitude.  The nursing staff are now considerably better educated than previous generations and appear more focussed on medical issues less inclined to help with cleaning duties.

In fact, it was well known that while hospitals were run by religious orders, the hospital matron regularly terrorised nursing staff with meticulous inspections.  The matrons famously used a handkerchief to search for any dirt or dust.  The unholy wrath of the matrons was Ireland’s most effective defence against hospital infections!