Ambulance negligence claims

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 an admission of liability (fault), an apology and £50,000 interim (advance) payment in an ongoing claim for a young woman who needed amputations through her feet after an ambulance crew failed to recognise signs of meningitis and take her to hospital for urgent IV antibiotic treatment.

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:

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.

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.