Now we have entered the New Year, many businesses tend to take stock from the previous year and review their New Year’s Resolutions.
They are asking themselves ‘what do we want to achieve in 2020?’, ‘what are our targets and challenges this year?’ and ‘how did we do last year?’
Asking these questions is a fantastic step in the right direction, especially for the NHS, however achieving these can prove far more challenging.
Recent statistics show that NHS has not managed to meet their own targets in relation to the A&E waiting times and regarding their waiting list for some operations.
It has also been noted that some improvements need to be made in relation to the GPs’ working hours in order to improve waiting times – the aim is to make sure that more patients can be seen.
All of this has been under review and there are plans put in place in order to try and improve the service. It has been recognised that there is a shortage of doctors and nurses, which means that the hospitals will have schemes to recruit more foreign doctors/nurses.
It is hoped that these New Year’s Resolutions will help hospitals and GP surgeries meet their targets and improve their services nationally.
While it is understandable that the patients might need to wait sometimes and that some delays are considered reasonable, there are situations when the lack of care and promptness in treatment might result in hospitals and surgeries becoming negligent.
For example, a patient may need immediate attention due to life threatening or serious injuries, or when the patient developed red flag symptoms but might have not suffered an injury yet.
Equally, administrative errors and delays are also unacceptable as these can result in patients not being seen on time and/or referred to appropriate specialists.
There are other situations when delays and the lack of care and/or attention might be negligent. Therefore, if you received treatment that you believe to be below the expected standard of care, it is worth seeking legal advice.
