Injury Compensation News

The Medical Council is investigating claims of doctor negligence against a Dublin GP who allegedly over-prescribed psychoactive benzodiazepines.

It is claimed that Dr Mohammed Ahmed Khan, who practices in Wicklow Street, Dublin, prescribed up to four times the recommended dosage of drugs such as Valium to patients suffering from anxiety and depression. The Medical Council are also looking into claims that Dr Khan failed to make adequate enquiries as to whether any of the patients he was prescribing these drugs to were already being treated by another doctor.

Dr Khan has also been accused of poor professional performance due to his alleged failure to refer patients with a dependency on benzodiazepines to drug treatment centres or specialist substance misuse practitioners and due to his reliance on prescription drugs where an alternative form of treatment may have been more beneficial to the patient or in their best interests.

The Medical Council regulates doctors to practise medicine in the Republic of Ireland.  Its statutory role, as outlined in the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, is to protect the public by promoting and better ensuring high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among registered medical practitioners.

An error in the dosage of flu vaccine given to the public and the Health Service Executive´s own staff has the potential to result in medical negligence claims.  

Red-faced officials at the HSE admitted that child dosages of the flu vaccine had been administered to almost 500 members of the public and 850 employees at eleven HSE centres in the Dublin and Mid-Leinster regions – leaving them at risk of contracting a flu virus when the recipients of the vaccine would have believed they were protected against infection.

The error only came to light after a pharmacist queried why so much vaccine remained in the syringe after administering the “recommended” dosage, and it is believed that 75 of 835 pharmacists trained to give flu vaccines to those most at risk from contracting the virus were incorrectly trained by Hibernian Healthcare.

The company has now acknowledged its error and agreed to cover the cost of providing second flu vaccines to ensure recipients are adequately protected. However the question of whether a person who fails to receive a booster vaccine, and then falls ill from the flu, is entitled to make a medical negligence claim for compensation still remains open.

The majority of the incorrect flu vaccine doses have been given to those most at risk from contracting the virus, including people with long-term illnesses, the elderly and front-line HSE staff. Should any of these people fall ill from the flu due to being given an inadequate dose of flu vaccine, the consequences could be fatal.

Professor John Crown, a consultant oncologist, writing recently in The Irish Independent, said that the HSE and Department of Health and Children together “comprise one of the least ethical organisations that I have ever dealt with”. Professor Crown goes on to describe the HSE as “secretive, self-serving, dishonest, incompetent and unintelligent.”  He concludes, with an interesting historical comparison, that the “corruption and incompetence” of the HSE is effectively a form of Stalinism.
These comments are interesting from the point of view of anyone trying to make a medical negligence claim or hospital negligence claim related to one of the HSE’s services.  The management problems that increase the likelihood of negligence are compounded by the way the HSE deals with its own negligence.  It’s really no surprise that the Injuries Board Ireland refuses to deal with cases against the HSE.

The family of Miriam Jackson of Navan, County Meath, has received a €564,000 High Court settlement following her death in September 2004 in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, two weeks after being admitted with a small bowel obstruction. The case was taken by her husband, Derek Jackson, who also sued on behalf of his three children for damages for the loss of Mrs Jackson and the resulting mental distress. The lawsuit outlined over twenty claims of medical negligence and hospital negligence – mostly an unfortunate list of ignored symptoms. It was alleged that that urine analysis results were ignored – results that found an E coli infection and therefore septicemia was allowed develop and go untreated for a significant period of time. It was alleged that Mrs Jackson complained of abdominal pain and was feverish. It was claimed that her rising temperature was ignored by the surgical team. It was alleged that a medical consultation requested by the surgical registrar did not take place, despite multiple symptoms, including a temperature of 38.2 degrees, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and light-headednes.
The hospital admitted liability in the case, so the High Court case under Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill was only to determine the amount of compensation.

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.

A truely tragic story in the Sunday Independent today highlights the dangers posed to pregnant women by antidepressants. Lisa McGillin reached a settlement of €500,000 with two doctors involved in her care during pregnancy – although there was no admission of liabilty or guilt in the case.  McGillin was given medication for her bipolar condition, without any warning about the dangers of taking antidepressants while pregnant.  In fact, McGillin claimed that she was also advised that Epilim (a brand of sodium valproate) was safe during pregnancy provided  she also took folic acid in adequate amounts.