Guide To Care Home Negligence Compensation Claims

It is often a difficult decision to place a member of your family in a care home. And when you eventually do, your choice of a care home will most likely be based on trust and confidence. Therefore it will not be out of place that you expect a certain level of standard care. When care home negligence happens, you strongly feel let down badly.

A care home should be a place of trust and although many care homes do provide excellent care, it is not always the case. Some care homes have been found to lack proper staff supervision, experience or training considered necessary to provide an appropriate level of daily care for elderly people in vulnerable physical or mental health, resulting in care home negligence.

Care home negligence

The consequence of care home negligence is often that the resident feels sad, depressed and in some cases, suffers physically. There are many people who need assistance with their daily lives, whether it is because of old age, disability, or just needing some extra help with certain tasks. For some this help is delivered at home and for others they will move into a care home. There, they can be peered after and get the 24/7 care that they required.

However, when care homes become negligent, they usually find themselves facing serious legal claims like; care home abuse claims, care home injury claim, care home neglect as well as pressure sore claims. The anxiety and distress felt by all the family demands answers for why conditions have been allowed to continue and loved one appears deprived of all sense of dignity.

If you believe that your aged parent or relative is not receiving the standard of care expected or even being willfully neglected, you may feel obliged to pursue a negligence claim against the care home which is very possible. Our dedicated care home negligence solicitors are at your service. With many years of experience under their belt together with records of successfully resolving many different types of cases of care home negligence, you can rest assured that those responsible for the pain you or your loved one has suffered are brought to book. We will assist you in finding out if your family member has not received the expected standard care or has been subjected to abuse, secure access to make your complaint heard and also obtain legal compensation for the injury or harm suffered.

Examples of Care Home Negligence

Care home medical negligence predominately falls under the following categories:

• Emotional or social neglect
• Medical neglect
• Basic needs neglect
• Personal hygiene neglect

Failures within these categories can result to;

• Deficient assistance with or lack of regular bathing, washing and cleaning
• Deficient food or water provision results in to dehydration and malnutrition
• Deficient lifting aids, which can cause injury and harm
• Inaccurate to provide medication or medical care when required
• Not providing clean bedding and clothing
• Not preventing pressure sores pressure ulcers from developing or failing to treat any which are already in existence
• Not preventing falls, which can cause a fracture or injury to the head and back.

Care home compensation claim

If a care home has treated your relative badly you will not be automatically eligible for a claim. In clearer terms, to bring a successful care home compensation claim you will first have to satisfy a few requirements.

Firstly, you will need to establish that the care fell below the standard that one was reasonably entitled to expect. Once this has been established, there must be a causal link showing that as a result of the negligence, the claimant has suffered loss.

In some cases, it happens that even if negligence can be shown, the outcome of such negligence would have been the same irrespective of whether the negligence occurred or not. In situations like this, there would be no loss and consequently no claim.

Whether or not you can pursue a claim against the care home is dependent on whether the standard of care is deemed negligent and whether your loved one has suffered as a result. If you are unsure if you are entitled to care home negligence claim, our specialist care home negligence solicitors will be able to advise you further. It costs nothing to search out if you have a case and all our care home claims are shared out with by specialist medical negligence solicitors, on a exactly no win no fee basis.

Care home abuse claims

Sometimes, positions of authority can be exploited and there may be cases of abuse towards the residents of care homes. This can turn what should be a peaceful and trusted experience into one that is traumatic in nature. Care home abuse can be of different forms including physical and mental abuse. In some cases it can be unfortunately very hard to detect this abuse as a visiting relative of the care home. But your virtue to compensation is still reasonable. You may choose to claim for physical harm such as hitting or inappropriate violence, sexual abuse, tormenting residents mentally, wrongful doses of medication administered deliberately, purposeful exclusion of resident, from visits and activities among other.

Care home abuse can be absurd harming for everyone involved. When making a care home abuse claim with an experienced negligence team, it means that you can focus on supporting those closest to you during a very difficult time. Care homes have a duty of care to all citizens, and should be expected to treat all citizens with utmost respect and sympathy. When this does not happen, it can be very upsetting and all the wider overtones are considered as part of the claims process.

What are the signs of care home neglect?

If you loved one or aged family member is a victim of care home negligence, it’s not difficult to notice. It is almost certain you will immediately feel that something is wrong because;

• They won’t be their normal self: a definite change in behaviour or acting out of character.
• They might develop problems such as bed sores or loss of weight.
• You can easily spot personal hygiene issues such as a strong smell of urine indicating basic needs are not being met.
• You will notice dehydration: failure by carers to ensure enough liquids are being taken, which could lead to frequent urinary tract infections. Is water or juice accessible and within outreach and in a cup that can be used?
• Medication: a change condition could be caused by overdose or not receiving medication.
• Call for help or call bells: how quickly are they answered by staff? Can your relative approach for their call bell or has it been put unreachable
• Accidents: can and do happen in residential care homes and are often caused by carelessness on the part of the staff. However, accidents can be caused by negligence because: appropriate equipment’s may not be provided or maintained, lack of staff in attendance.

Care Home Negligence Solicitors

When suing a care company for neglect UK, you are going to need a solicitor to help you with your home care neglect compensation claims process. During the course of the initial meeting with your solicitor, they will discuss the concerns that you have, the treatment that was provided and the losses that have been suffered as a result.

At nhsnegligenceclaim.com, our care negligence solicitors are qualified legal experts who have considerable experiences in cases of this nature and in all likelihood would have dealt with similar cases in the past.

Therefore, this is beneficial to you on the basis that the solicitor should be able to engage with you to discuss the treatment that was provided and identify any areas of concern. Subject to the solicitor being satisfied that there is potential in your claim, they will try to determine your claims worth and give you sound advice on how to proceed, going forward.

Is it possible to sue the NHS for care home negligence?

There is no doubt that the NHS provides an excellent service to millions of patients every year. Nevertheless, sometimes mistakes happen and these can be life changing to the people affected. If there is a case of NHS negligence as regards to care home, it is very possible to sue the NHS for medical negligence. Suing the NHS can be frightening as it is a huge body but with us at nhsnegligenceclaim.com, you have nothing to worry about. Our medical negligence solicitors are specialists in making claims against the NHS with proven track record of success in this regard.

How long will my care home negligence claim take?

As with any other medical negligence claim there are set time limits on when you are able to claim compensation. Whether you want to sue the NHS or a privately operated care home for negligence, there is a three-year time limit to make a claim – starting from the date you became aware of the problem.

How much will my claim cost?

At NHS Negligence Claim, all medical negligence claims including care home negligence compensation claims are handled on a No Win No fee basis. This means that you will not have to pay any money upfront and there will be no financial risk if your claim happens to be unsuccessful.

However, if your case is successful, you will only be expected to pay a contribution to your solicitor’s fees once the case has been resolved. The cost paid is usually a percentage of the total compensation awarded and will be agreed before your case is carried out.