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In life-threatening or medical emergency situations, NHS patients rely on ambulance crews, paramedics and other first responders to provide safe, urgent, and often critical, emergency care.

A timely, effective response to many medical emergencies can prevent death or severe, long-term injury. The outcome to life and death health conditions often depends on how quickly the patient’s condition was recognised and treated. Ambulance crews and paramedics are usually the first medically trained professionals to see the critically ill patient whose outcome may (wholly or partly) depend on their standard of care.

Severe injury or significant worsening of the patient’s condition can be caused by negligent treatment even before the patient leaves home or arrives at hospital. Each stage of the patient’s journey must be handled correctly, from NHS 111’s advice, call handling and triage (prioritising of the patient’s needs), the ambulance service response and/or paramedic care, to the patient’s care in transit and handover at hospital.

Claims commonly arise from misdiagnosis or negligent management of life-threatening or emergency conditions, such as head or spinal injuries, heart attacks and strokes, severe bleeding, meningitis or sepsis, asthma attacks, anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reactions. Further injury may be caused by incorrect treatment or medication, or significant delays in responding.

In the same way that other areas of the NHS, such as accident and emergency (A&E), hospital specialist departments and GPs have a responsibility to their patients, NHS 111 and ambulance services must compensate patients who are severely injured by their negligent care. This includes where the mistakes are the result of lack of training, staff or resources. The NHS is responsible for ensuring that ambulance services have the correct staff and equipment to respond to emergencies on time and to provide the correct standard of care.

Recent ambulance negligence cases

  • We obtained a £6.4 million settlement for a young woman who needed amputations through both her feet after an ambulance crew failed to recognise signs of meningitis and take her to hospital for urgent IV antibiotic treatment. Our client approached us for help after her previous solicitors advised her not to proceed with her claim. 

Our expertise with ambulance and paramedic negligence claims

Boyes Turner’s medical negligence claims specialists can help injured patients recover compensation after negligence by:

  • NHS 111;
  • Ambulance services;
  • Air ambulance services;
  • Paramedics;
  • First responders;
  • Out of hours services;

See our other website pages for further types of claims arising from negligent emergency care: 

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What type of mistakes lead to ambulance/paramedic or NHS 111 negligence claims?

Medical negligence claims for compensation for serious injury caused by first responders often include one or more of the following mistakes:

  • call handling errors;
  • failing to take proper information about the patient’s condition;
  • negligent prioritising of the patient’s need for treatment (triage);
  • incorrect urgency classification and instruction to ambulance service;
  • failing to send out an ambulance;
  • delay:
    • in arriving (slow response time);
    • in providing treatment;
    • in transfer to appropriate hospital for the condition;
    • in handover of patient at hospital;
  • paramedic care errors;
  • patient handling errors, (such as spinal injury lifting, excessive force, dropping a patient or allowing a patient to fall);
  • incorrect assessment or misdiagnosis;
  • failing to recognise red flag symptoms of emergency conditions;
  • failing to provide emergency treatment (such as resuscitation);
  • incorrect treatment;
  • failure to carry out correct observations;
  • medication errors;
  • refusing to take a patient to hospital who needs emergency treatment;
  • ambulance equipment errors:
    • lack of necessary equipment;
    • use of incorrect equipment;
    • defective equipment;
  • communication errors:
    • incorrect classification of the level of urgency;
    • miscommunication on handover of the patient;
    • incorrect information noted in the patient’s medical records;  
  • staff issues:
    • shortages of staff;
    • lack of properly trained staff;
  • ambulance driving errors:
    • ambulance road traffic accidents and collisions;
    • taking the patient to the wrong hospital for their condition.

Claims for serious injury involving ambulance care can also arise from:

  • GP negligence, such as:
    • delay in calling an ambulance;
    • failure to specify the correct level of urgency;
    • providing incorrect information about the patient’s condition; 
  • A&E or emergency department delays in accepting a patient during handover from an ambulance.
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What kind of injuries you can claim compensation for?

In most cases, patients who need an ambulance are already suffering from a condition which needs urgent or emergency hospital care. Where a delayed response or negligent treatment from ambulance or paramedic services causes or significantly worsens the patient’s condition, leading to severe, permanent injury, the patient may be entitled to claim compensation for the additional injury that was caused by the negligent care.

Boyes Turner’s medical negligence claims team have helped patients and their families recover compensation after negligent ambulance or emergency care has resulted in:

  • brain injury or neurological injury, such as from delayed or negligent response to:
    • respiratory arrest;
    • Heart attack or cardiac arrest
    • stroke;
    • brain haemorrhage;
    • obstetric emergency (birth injury);
    • choking;
  • spinal injury:
    • tetraplegia;
    • paraplegia;
    • paralysis;
    • cauda equina syndrome;
  • amputation, including from:
    • peripheral ischaemia;
    • meningitis;
    • sepsis;
    • thrombosis;
  • damage to vital organs;
  • long term disability;
  • psychological injury/PTSD;
  • death or fatal injury.
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Meet your specialist team

Our specialist Ambulance negligence claims team are considered leaders in the field and have a significant amount of expertise.
Susan Brown photo

Susan Brown

Partner

Julie Marsh headshot

Julie Marsh

Partner

Richard Money-Kyrle headshot

Richard Money-Kyrle

Partner

Sita Soni headshot

Sita Soni

Senior Associate - solicitor

Vanessa Wand photo

Vanessa Wand

Senior associate - solicitor

Tara Byrne photo

Tara Byrne

Associate - Solicitor

Rachel Makore headshot

Rachel Makore

Associate - solicitor

Alpa Rana headshot

Alpa Rana

Associate - solicitor

Fran Rothwell

Fran Rothwell

Associate solicitor

Ben Ireland headshot

Ben Ireland

Solicitor

Alice Carley headshot

Alice Carley

Paralegal

Audrey Elmore headshot

Audrey Elmore

Medical records coordinator

Nicky Melville headshot

Nicky Melville

Professional support assistant

Susan Brown photo
Julie Marsh headshot
Richard Money-Kyrle headshot
Sita Soni headshot
Vanessa Wand photo
Tara Byrne photo
Rachel Makore headshot
Alpa Rana headshot
Fran Rothwell
Ben Ireland headshot
Alice Carley headshot
Audrey Elmore headshot
Nicky Melville headshot

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Awards & Accreditations

Our teams have been nationally recognised over the past decade for their dedication and commitment to securing maximum compensation for our clients

              Brake | The Road Safety Charity

"Honest, approachable and truly empathetic"

What has to be some of the most testing horrible times was dealt with in a dignified, honest, approachable and truly empathetic manner. I could not begin to do Susan justice for her handling of our case.

Boyes Turner Client

"they kept us fully informed "

I approached Boyes Turner after my claim was turned down by one of the Medical Negligence Claim company. My wife was a victim of medical negligence.

Boyes Turner have acted so efficiently on our behalf and was able to win our case. Anytime we contact them, their customer service was very good as they kept us fully informed of every level our case has developed. They are very friendly and approachable and great in their professional advise. I would strongly recommend anyone approach them for their legal and medical negligence services.

Boyes Turner Client

"Thoroughly professional, knowledgable and approachable"

Thoroughly professional, knowledgable and approachable with communication and updates as and when needed, in what can be a drawn out process, I was always comfortable asking questions and always received answers which were clear and understandable. Highly recommend

Boyes Turner Client

"Amazing professional firm"

I came to Boyes Turner desperate after searching the web for a firm to use for my sons case. He was only a few months so my mind was all over the place, but from the very first point of contact I felt a sense of relieve and belonging. I was welcomed and looked after by amazing staff who always communicated everything so well and went the extra mile to explain things and ensure I understood what was happening every step of the way (THANK YOU SUSAN BROWN). Susan was amazing I felt like I not only had a solicitor but someone who understood my emotions as a mother and always handled me with so much compassion and that was all I needed to keep me going for the 6 years of the case. Years went by in a breeze because of how professional Boyes Turner was. I am so greatful I went through it all with them and mananged to get my son a good compensation. We look forward our new life where my sons needs are priority after struggling for so long. Thank you Boyes Turner and thank you Susan Brown. My family and I are ever indebted.

Boyes Turner Client

"I couldn’t fault them they have been brilliant throughout the whole process"

From the moment I picked up the phone and spoke to Richard Money-Kyrle I knew I had done the right thing by choosing Boyes Turner to take our claim forward and to represent my son. Both Richard Money-Kyrle and Alpa Rana have worked on our case and they both have been amazing throughout, explaining every step of the way and anything we didn’t understand and keeping me updated constantly. This gave me and my family a lot of reassurance.

Both Richard and Alpa are friendly and gained my trust and have been really easy to talk to which has made the process a whole lot easier and smoother than anticipated.
The outcome of the claim was far more than I could have wished for and that was down to their hard work and expertise

I couldn’t fault them they have been brilliant throughout the whole process I would recommend Boyes Turner to anyone.

Boyes Turner Client
Rated Excellent 4.8/5