Stay Safe At Work » Medical Negligence http://www.staysafeatwork.info Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:41:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 Safety in Work: The Responsibility of Doctors and Nurses… http://www.staysafeatwork.info/safety-in-work-the-responsibility-of-doctors-and-nurses/ http://www.staysafeatwork.info/safety-in-work-the-responsibility-of-doctors-and-nurses/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:09:03 +0000 admin http://www.staysafeatwork.info/?p=34 Patient Safety is now one of the most important issues facing modern day hospitals, and the recent spurt of infections spreading though wards were a wake-up call for many institutions. Such a wake-up call led to provisions being put into place to counteract such infections. Medical Ethics come into play here, and the safety of patients should be dealt with through professional and ethical means. According to the Department of Health one in ten patients acquires a HAI, and those who do contract an infection stay in hospital nearly three times longer than ordinary patients, placing tremendous financial pressure on our already strapped-for-cash health services. One of the ways that medical staff such as doctors, nurses, and surgeons are ensuring safety is at its optimum is through using ethical provisions and procedures. One of these provisions is the need to prevent venous thromboembolism, which is a blood clot that forms in the veins. Such clots can be extremely dangerous, and is actually the most common cause of preventable hospital deaths. That’s right, most hospital deaths that could have been stopped are caused by venous thromboembolism. The reason why such clots are so dangerous is essentially because the veins return blood to the heart, and if a piece of a blood clot formed in a vein breaks off it can be transported to the right side of the heart, and from there into the lungs. However, surgical teams, as well as doctors and nurses are now using timelines and plans as a way to keep on top of such clots. Teams of doctors and surgeons are setting goals concerning how different patients should be treated for clots in the veins. By setting goals to treat such things as venous thromboembolism the recovery rate is much higher.

]]> http://www.staysafeatwork.info/safety-in-work-the-responsibility-of-doctors-and-nurses/feed/ What is Medical Negligence? http://www.staysafeatwork.info/what-is-medical-negligence/ http://www.staysafeatwork.info/what-is-medical-negligence/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:38:24 +0000 admin http://www.staysafeatwork.info/?p=14 Medical negligence refers to damage caused to a patient by the lack of knowledge, or improper actions, of a doctor. Basically this means that the patient did not receive the correct treatment from the doctor. In order to prove that you have been a victim of medical negligence, you have to provide evidence that you were not given the kind of treatment from a certain doctor, that you would have received if some other doctor would have been in his/her place. Furthermore, you also need to prove that your health has worsened as a result of the misguided and irresponsible action of the doctor.

To file a medical negligence case, you need to hire a lawyer. Once a case has been filed, the doctor will be called in to give testimony and explain his/her actions, and your lawyer will involve other doctors as well who will explain how the actions have made the patient’s health worse.

In a lot of cases where the negligence is easy to prove, hospitals or doctors choose to settle them out of court. This means that they provide a lump sum of money to the patient so that they can drop the case against them. The lawyer in such cases advises you as to whether the money being offered is a good enough offer for you to drop your case against the doctor or not.

If a doctor is proved to be negligent, their insurance premium shoots up; in cases where the negligence caused death or results in a recurrent problem with the patient, the medical board takes the license off the doctor, thus forcing them to quit practicing medicine. This is why it is important to make sure that you are not filing a case simply for financial gain, but because you truly believe there was negligent behaviour involved in your treatment, leaving you no other option than to approach the relevant authorities.

Medical negligence cases give the patient the power to speak if they feel they have been wronged, and it is extremely important that this voice is not misused just for personal gain.

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