Care homes provide vital services to some of the most vulnerable people in society. They have a duty of care to ensure residents are given a level of care that meets with fundamental standards as set out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Correctly dispensing medication is one such responsibility. Medication errors in care homes can cause long-term health impacts for the resident involved. If this happened to you or a loved one, you could be owed compensation from the care home at fault.
Key Points To Remember When Claiming For Care Home Negligence
- Care home staff are required to meet certain professional standards of care, and if they fail to do so, causing avoidable harm to a resident/patient, a compensation claim can apply.
- Dispensing medication correctly is a key responsibility of care home staff.
- A three-year time limit is allocated in which to start a care home claim, but this can be frozen if the person lacks mental capacity.
- You can initiate a claim for a wrong medication error on behalf of someone else, like a relative.
- One of our solicitors could help eligible claimants start their claims via a type of No Win No Fee contract that avoids immediate or ongoing legal fees.
Read on to learn more on how to claim. Or connect with us now for free guidance on claims for medication errors in care homes:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804.
- Leave a query about your claim online.
- Use our Live Chat feature below.
Claiming For Medication Errors In Care Homes
Claims for medication errors in care homes start with meeting three eligibility criteria:
- The care home staff had a specific duty of care to provide proper care and treatment.
- They fell short of this expected standard.
- You (or a relative) experienced avoidable or unnecessary harm as a result of this.
If you meet these three criteria, you could have a care home claim and be owed compensation for the physical, psychological and financial harm caused.
As you read this guide, please feel free to connect at any point with our advisors on the number above for free and impartial legal guidance about anything raised.
Making A Care Home Negligence Claim For Someone Else
As we touched upon in our key takeaway section, there is normally a three-year time limit for starting a medication error claim as detailed by the Limitation Act 1980. However, this can be paused or frozen for minors (until they turn 18) and those who lack the mental capacity to claim independently (indefinitely).
If you need to claim on behalf of someone else, the courts may appoint you as a litigation friend. In this role, you can start a care home claim immediately and perform all the functions of the claim on the person’s behalf. This is often useful if compensation is being sought urgently for medical treatment.
Call our advisors if you’d like more guidance on the role of litigation friends or any part of the claims process after medication errors in care homes.
How Can Medication Errors In Care Homes Happen?
We explore some specific scenarios of harm caused by medication errors in care homes in the following section, but some general causes may be as follows:
- Poor communication between doctors and care home staff.
- Inadequate staffing and ineffective shift patterns.
- Incorrectly trained (or untrained) staff are left in charge.
- The frequency, strength or route to administering the drug is not double-checked for patient suitability.
- Incorrect substitute drugs are administered.
- When medication names are similar or abbreviated in a way that not everyone understands.
- When there’s a failure to maintain the storage and equipment used for administering medication to the correct standards.
Common medication errors in care homes can differ greatly from person to person. If you’d like to discuss your particular situation and see if a claim can apply, call the team.
Different Types Of Medication Errors And Their Impacts
Below are some examples of how medication errors in care homes might happen in a way that presents grounds for a potential claim:
- A doctor makes an error when prescribing medication to a resident. The resident fails to get better.
- The correct dosage of medication may be administered to the wrong resident because of staff error. One resident is harmed and the other one fails to receive care. In cases of similar patient surnames, a ‘Name Alert’ procedure should be used to ensure the right resident receives their medication.
- Due to lack of adequate supervision, the resident may fail to take their prescribed drugs or take too much medication, lose consciousness and suffer a head injury in a fall.
- Because care home record keeping systems are not regularly updated, a resident continues to receive and take a drug that is no longer appropriate, causing them digestive and bowel injury.
- Staff fail to consult patient notes regularly and monitor any adverse drug effects. Either immediately or over a prolonged period, the resident suffers a decline in health because of these medicine administration errors.
- Stressed or over-worked care home staff simply forget to administer medication to a resident, impacting their recovery and patient safety.
- The correct procedure for taking medication is not followed, such as not taking medication with food. This causes the patient harm like nausea and vomiting.
- Over-the-counter medication is used alongside prescription drugs without checking any adverse drug reactions to the resident. They suffer kidney damage and a spleen injury as a result.
- Staff should also check that the right medication is in the correct packaging and conforms with use-by dates.
The Consequences Of Medication Errors
Medication mistakes can cause an array of side effects that impact health and well-being. They can cause temporary or permanent health problems, including the following:
- Mild discomfort.
- Fatigue, confusion and loss of consciousness.
- Rapid heart rate.
- Nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.
- Internal bleeding and organ damage to the kidneys, bowel, spleen or liver.
- Bladder injury.
- Cardiac arrest and death.
Simple antibiotics can cause reactions such as wheezing and breathing difficulties, so it’s essential that care home staff are vigilant in all the ways to reduce medication errors. If you feel your care home failed, speak to our team about what to do next.
How Much Compensation Could You Get For Medication Errors In Care Homes?
Claims for medication errors in care homes that are successful can mean an award that is made up of two heads of loss called general and special damages. Under general damages, a monetary amount is calculated that reflects the following:
- The physical pain the person endured.
- Any psychiatric injury.
- Any permanent disability.
- The overall negative impact on the quality of their life.
Those involved in calculating general damages often refer to medical records to understand what effect the medication errors had on the claimant, along with the overall prognosis. In addition to this, they also consult publications like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) where various types and severity of harm are listed with a guideline award bracket.
These sums are based on successful claims made in the past. However, they are strictly guideline figures and the excerpt we have put together below includes a top entry that is not from the JCG:
Compensation Guidelines
| AREA OF HARM | SEVERITY | AWARD GUIDELINES |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple forms of harm and awards under special damages for care costs and medical expenses. | Severe | Up to £550,000 plus. |
| Brain/Head | (b) Moderately Severe | £267,340 up to £344,150 |
| Kidney | (a) Serious | £206,730 up to £256,780 |
| Bowels | (a) Double incontinence and lost function | Up to £224,790 |
| Bladder | (c) Serious | £78,080 up to £97,540 |
| Non-Traumatic Illness to Digestive System | (i) Severe | £46,900 up to £64,070 |
| (ii) Serious | £11,640 up to £23,430 | |
| (iii) Significant | £4,820 up to £11,640 | |
| (iv) Temporary | £1,110 up to £4,820 | |
| Asthma-like Symptoms | (d) Mild | £12,990 up to £23,430 |
Could I Claim Special Damages?
Special damages are the second category of loss that can form the total compensation award. This reimburses the person for any financial loss and monetary expense caused by the medication error. Special damages are only claimed alongside general damages and you would be required to submit documented proof such as:
- Evidence of loss of earnings after the medication error.
- Proof of any private medical expenses.
- Receipts and invoices for essential care required after the error.
- Proof of costs for specialist equipment.
- Travel amounts for appointments.
Our solicitors know how to use documented proof like this to calculate the maximum compensation owed. If you’d like more guidance on how they approach claims for medication errors in care homes and how compensation is calculated, get in touch with our advisory team.
Why Make A Claim With Legal Expert?
Our solicitors have been confidently dealing with care home claims for decades. They have the essential expertise to help people just like you build a solid claim for compensation after a medication error. In addition to this, if they take up the claim you can expect:
- Regular updates on the status of the claim.
- A fully and accurately calculated idea of what compensation is owed.
- Skilful negotiation on your behalf throughout the entire process, with all correspondence and court requests dealt with promptly.
- A professionally presented claim at all times.
You or your loved one could focus on recovering from the medication error, safe in the knowledge that every aspect of your claim against a negligent care home is being properly handled. And they can do this in a way that does not add to your financial burden right now.
What Is A No Win No Fee Agreement?
Our solicitors can offer their services under No Win No Fee terms. This is a funding option that helps people access professional legal services without charge until the outcome of the claim is known. Not all solicitors offer their services in this way, but ours can offer a version called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which normally means:
- You won’t need to pay upfront solicitors fees.
- No solicitors’ fees apply as the claim moves ahead.
- No solicitor’s fee applies for finished work on the claim if it fails.
- A nominal percentage ‘success fee’ is taken from the compensation for winning claim outcomes.
- A legal cap keeps the success fee percentage low.
- This guarantees you benefit first and foremost.
- In addition to this, you and your solicitor can agree on the success fee amount before work starts.
With all this mind, why not see if our solicitors can help you? Learn more about No Win No Fee claims for medication errors in care homes today:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804.
- Leave a query about your claim online.
- Use our Live Discussion feature below.
Learn More
Alongside this guide on claims for medication errors in care homes, these other articles might prove helpful:
- Here we discuss penicillin medication error claims.
- Also read our guide on a wrong patient medication error claim.
External resources:
- The Health and Social Care Act 2012 details the legal duties of care homes.
- Read some reported medicine-related incidents here.
- This NHS guide to care homes is useful.
Thank you for reading our guide about medication errors in care homes. If you would like to see whether you could go ahead with a claim or just have other questions, please connect with our advisory team for immediate assistance.