NHS Health and Safety Breaches - Can I Claim Compensation?

Welcome to our guide on NHS health and safety breach claims. When you’re in an NHS healthcare facility, you could come to harm as a result of negligent medical care. However, there is also the possibility that you could sustain a personal injury as the result of a poorly maintained space. This is the kind of incident that this guide will focus on.

To make a health and safety breach personal injury claim, you need to prove that the negligent actions of the party in control of the space caused you harm. Whether you are a staff or a patient of the NHS, you could potentially still make a claim if someone has breached their duty of care towards you regarding health and safety and you’ve been injured or made ill as a result.

NHS Resolution are the litigation branch of the NHS. They handle both clinical and non-clinical claims for compensation against the NHS. The Liabilities to Third Parties Scheme (LTPS) is the scheme within NHS Resolution that covers public and employers’ liability claims.

If you’re thinking about making a claim, get in touch with our team of advisors. They can offer you free legal advice about your claim and may even connect you with a solicitor from our panel. They can help you start a claim today.

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The Importance Of NHS Health And Safety
How Can NHS Health And Safety Breaches Lead To Injuries?
The Evidence Needed To Prove Personal Injury Claims
Compensation Payouts For Health And Safety Breaches
Connect With No Win No Fee Personal Injury Solicitors
Learn More About NHS Health And Safety Policies

The Importance Of NHS Health And Safety

When at work, your employer has a duty of care towards you. This means taking all reasonably practicable steps to keep you safe. If this duty of care is breached, you could potentially claim compensation from your employer.

The Health, Safety and Wellbeing Partnership Group (HSWPG) is the NHS staff council’s occupational health and safety subgroup. They were established to promote a safer working environment for NHS staff.

Together with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s regulator for health and safety in the workplace, they have published The Workplace Health and Safety Standards. This provides practical pointers for meeting occupational health and safety standards for NHS employees. The idea is that if employers take guidance from this publication, they will meet their legal obligations whilst also protecting their staff and patients.

In NHS settings, there is a duty of care owed to members of the public too. As well as the duty of care that healthcare providers owe to their patients, those in control of spaces that are accessible to the public should reduce the risk of injury when the space is used for the intended purpose.

This is shown in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, as the NHS is considered the party in control of spaces such as public hospitals and other medical practices. Similar to the duty of care owed to staff, the NHS must take all reasonably practicable steps to keep patients and members of the public from further injury or disease.

Health And Safety Statistics

The HSE gathers helpful statistics on accidents in the workplace. From these statistics, we can see how many employees in the health and social care sector were affected by injury or ill-health in the workplace in 2020/21.

These statistics show an estimated 82,000 non-fatal work-related injuries in the health and social care sector. There’s no statistically significant difference between the rate of injury in health and social work activities (1.9%) and the all industry rate (1.7%) per 100,000 workers. It’s important to note, however, that these statistics don’t relate to negligence, so it’s not possible for us to infer how many of these would be grounds for successful claims.

They also show an estimated 124,000 work-related cases of stress, depression or anxiety, which accounted for 49% of all ill-health in this sector. This is at a rate of 2.8% per 100,000 workers, significantly higher than the 1.8% reported for workers across all industries.

To find out more about claiming for NHS safety breaches, get in touch with us today. One of our advisors could offer you free legal advice and connect you with a solicitor from our panel if your claim is valid.

How Can NHS Health And Safety Breaches Lead To Injuries?

As we’ve previously mentioned, employers have a duty of care towards all employees. This is outlined in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which states that employers need to take all reasonably practicable steps to keep employees safe.

This could include completing routine risk assessments and providing the correct personal protective equipment (PPE), such as non-slip shoes. If the correct steps are not taken, and this duty of care is breached, you could claim compensation from your employer for any injuries you sustain as a result.

The NHS also has a duty of care towards members of the public in a similar way. Whether you’re a visitor or patient, anyone visiting the hospital has the right to feel their health and safety is being taken seriously by the NHS.

For example, if you were a member of staff in an NHS hospital and were required to handle heavy equipment manually, you should be given the correct training on how to do this safely. If you weren’t given this training, it could potentially lead to a serious back injury.

Another example could be if the hospital was being cleaned, but an appropriate cleaner was not used, meaning that the floor was left very slippery even after drying. A member of the public could potentially slip, leading to a head injury.

There are many more examples of how an NHS facility could breach the duty of care they owe you, resulting in public liability claims. Get in touch with us now for more information on NHS health and safety claims.

The Evidence Needed To Prove Personal Injury Claims

If you’ve been involved in an accident that has led to harm, we recommend that you seek immediate medical attention. This will ensure that you get the treatment that you need. Some injuries might seem minor initially but can develop into something more serious if left untreated.

After this, you may want to start gathering evidence that could help you in your claim. You can claim without hiring a solicitor, but we recommend having one work on your behalf. The guidance of a solicitor can help make the claims process smoother for you.

Appropriate evidence that could be used to support your claim include:

Workplace or public place accident report book records
CCTV footage
Photographs
Medical reports
The contact details of any witnesses so that statements can be taken at a later date

If you’d like more information on the evidence that can be used to support claims for injuries caused by NHS health and safety breaches, speak to our claims team today. You can use the banner on this page to get in touch with one of our advisors.

Compensation Payouts For Health And Safety Breaches

Please see below for a table of potential compensation amounts relating to injuries sustained as the result of NHS health and safety breaches. These figures are worked out based on previous case studies and taken from the Judicial College Guidelines. Legal professionals use these guidelines to help value personal injuries.

Injury	Severity	Amount	Notes
Brain or Head	Minor	£2,070 to £11,980	This bracket may cover minimal brain damage, if any has occurred, and minor head injuries.
Arm	(d)	£6,190 to £18,020	This bracket may cover a simple fracture of the forearm.
Arm	Less Severe	£18,020 to £36,770	This bracket may cover injuries that have resulted in significant disabilities but a substantial amount of recovery has occurred or is expected.
Shoulder	Serious	£11,980 to £18,020	This bracket may cover a dislocation that causes pain in the shoulder, neck and elbow with a related weakness of grip.
Knee	Moderate (i)	£13,920 to £24,580	This bracket may cover torn cartilage or dislocation which results in some instability or weakness. Or, the injury may have exacerbated symptoms of a pre-existing condition.
Toe	(a)	£34,270 to £52,620	This bracket may cover the amputation of all toes, whether it was traumatic or surgical.
Hand	Moderate	£5,260 to £12,460	This bracket may include crush injuries, penetrating wounds and deep lacerations.
Back	Moderate (ii)	£11,730 to £26,050	This bracket may cover prolapsed discs, or soft tissue injuries that exacerbate the symptoms of a pre-existing condition.
Index Finger	Fracture	£8,550 to £11,480	Injuries within this bracket may heal quickly, but grip will be impaired and heavy use will result in pain.
Elbow	Moderate or Minor	Up to £11,820	This bracket will cover many elbow injuries, including simple fractures and lacerations. Injuries in this bracket will not cause any permanent damages or impairment of function.

This part of your compensation that takes into account the pain and suffering caused by your injuries is called general damages. The value of this head of your claim will be based on the results of a medical assessment that you attend. Here, an independent expert will assess the severity of your injuries and detail their findings and prognosis in a report. This report will be used to work out how much you’re entitled to in general damages.

It’s also possible for you to be awarded special damages. This part of your claim aims to cover any potential financial losses caused by your injury. You could also claim for potential financial loss that you will incur in the future. For example, you could claim money back for:

Lost earnings
The price of mobility supports for a disability
Home adjustments if a disability necessitates it
Travel costs
Medical treatments the NHS doesn’t offer

To claim special damages, you need to provide evidence. You could provide receipts to evidence the installation of a stairlift, for example. To find out more about how you could claim special damages, get in touch with our advisors.

Connect With No Win No Fee Personal Injury Solicitors

Hiring a solicitor to help you make an NHS health and safety breach claim may seem daunting. This is especially true if you have already been put at a financial loss after your accident and are worried about paying upfront or ongoing costs with no guarantee of being awarded compensation. If this is the case, a No Win No Fee agreement could benefit you.

Funding legal representation on this basis means you’re not expected to pay any upfront or ongoing costs to your solicitor. In fact, you don’t need to pay your solicitor fees at all if your claim is unsuccessful.

Your solicitor will deduct a success fee from your compensation amount if the claim is successful. Before taking on your case, your solicitor will discuss this fee with you. The success fee is also legally capped, preventing you from being overcharged.

If you can prove that an NHS health and safety breach caused you harm, you could potentially claim compensation. Our team of advisors can offer you free legal advice about making a valid claim.

If they think your claim has a good chance of success, they may pass you on to a solicitor from our panel. You can get in touch by:

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Learn More About NHS Health And Safety Policies

Thank you for reading our guide on NHS health and safety claims. We hope you found it helpful. To learn more about the relevant health and safety policies, please see below.

The NHS Resolution Annual Report for 2020/21 – This document provided statistics and information on clinical and non-clinical claims made against the NHS

Slips, Trips and Falls– This HSE guidance outlines some of the common causes of slips and trips and how they can be prevented.

Footwear– This HSE guide explains how appropriate footwear can help to prevent the risk of slipping and falling, which could result in injury.

You can read more of our guides below too:

Thank you for reading our guide about NHS health and safety claims.