People believe that visiting a medical professional they are in safe hands and in most cases this is the absolute truth. Medical providers and care workers devote much of their lives to helping those that are in need and ensuring they recover from whatever ill health they are suffering from. Those that choose to become a health care worker do so as they have not only a healthy ambition to study one of the most if not the most fascinating subjects i.e. medicine but also a drive and instinct to want to help others. The decision is not taken lightly, in most cases the learning path is both complex and time consuming but the rewards at becoming a physician are known to be far out weighing. The jobs doctors, nurses, dentist and care workers do often goes unnoticed, working gruelling hours, long tiring shifts and agonising work loads means not all the work accomplished is satisfying however they do an astounding job on a daily basis throughout the year, day in and day out. That said things in the medical profession have been known not to always go straight forward causing medical or clinical negligence as its more professional known to happen.
Medical Negligence on the Increase
There is no denying that there has been a significant rise to the amount of medical negligence claims being pursued and that is not just colourfully illustrated in the tabloids and media who do take a poignant view on such medical negligence cases but statistics also back up the opinion that clinical negligence is rising. It has been reported that the number of litigation claims, people making a Medical Negligence Claim has almost doubled during the precious’s government’s coalition amidst the other claims that such health care being provider may not always be up to standard. Cases of medical negligence during the year 2009 to 2010 stood at 6562 however during the year 2013 to 2014 this number rose dramatically to an unprecedented 11,945, which is shocking when we think about all the money and time spent on break through medicine. Experts opinion in the field of investigating medical negligence combined with the statistics prove that much of the medical negligence claims that are pursed are done so under the reason that the care being provided is below the expected standard.
Contaminated Medical Equipment
Medical negligence can take place for different reasons and in the most instances although the negligence has taken place it has not been done so in a deliberate manner however that said when a person is a victim of medical negligence the ill effects suffered as a direct consequence of the negligence can be devastating not to mention life changing and although the negligence that has occurred may have been an accident it begs the question is there room for accidents in the medical profession. Medical negligence can have different severities some victims will recover quite quickly with little impact on their future life while others may not have the capabilities to be able to return to life as they once knew it and for the latter reason it has been made possible for victims of medical negligence to make a medical negligence claim.
Furthermore it is fair to say that the reasons for why the medical negligence occurs is quite vital things may have gone wrong or incorrectly as care and attention has not been up to the standard it should have been. More shockingly medical negligence may occur because of poor, unclean, unsterilized equipment that has been used, people’s lives can be so very easily put at risk due to unclean medical equipment. Major stories to hit the press in that last few years of contaminated reused unsterilized equipment are them of dentists. During 2013 it was revealed that a Tulisa dentist who used unclean practises may have been responsible for exposing his patients to deadly viruses due to his unclean medical practises. After such revelations hundreds of his patients were tested which revealed unbelievable results; 3 people tested positive for HIV, 70 patients tested positive for hep C and 4 tested positive for hep B all completely life changing infections. Watchdog made a huge discovery during 2012 that 1 in 9 dentists investigated by health care watchdog was in breach of duty of care practices regarding cleanliness and the ability to control the spread of infections such as HIV, hepatitis and vCJD.
The Care Quality Commission Regulator who carried out the inspection found of the 1,667 dentist inspected that a huge 187 dentist practices where not using the guidelines set out by the Department of Health when cleaning instruments and dentist surgeries putting people’s lives and health at very real danger.