Care Home Claims

Making a care home negligence claim

We trust that our family members will be well looked after when they live in a care home, often with around-the-clock care. But all too often the poor standards of care provided at some care homes are revealed. Where your loved one has received poor care or has been subject to abuse in a care home, you are likely to be angry, want answers and want an apology from the company responsible. You may also be interested in knowing whether you may be able to claim compensation as well. This is where the specialist medical negligence solicitors at Blackwater Law can assist you.

There are a wide number of situations in which care is of such a poor standard that you may be entitled to make a care home negligence claim. These situations include:

• Care home staff failing to properly feed your family member.
• Staff allowing your family member to develop pressure sores (bed sores). Where pressure sores are present, there is likely to be a strong argument for a pressure sores claim due to the fact they can almost always be avoided through the provision of good care.
• Allowing your family member to fall and injure themselves. Falls in a care home can lead to serious head injuries, hip injuries, leg injuries, shoulder injuries and arm injuries, to name but a few.
• Failing to administer prescriptions or administering the wrong prescription, provides grounds for a wrong prescription claim.
• Failing to recognise signs of illness and seek specialist medical assistance from a GP or doctor.
• Failing to wash or clean your loved ones, causes them to develop an infection.
• Care home staff assaulting your family member or restraining them inappropriately or with undue force. Thankfully this type of care home abuse is rare, but there have been well-documented instances in the news over the last few years.
• Failing to secure them in bed their bed at night, allowing them to fall out and injure themselves.
• Using apparatus such as hoists inappropriately or failing to use the correct equipment, causes your family member to fall and injure themselves.
• The care home’s visiting GP may misdiagnose a condition or injury, providing grounds for a misdiagnosis claim or delayed diagnosis claim.

The above are just some examples of the situations in which residents of a care home can injure themselves or fall ill due to negligent care in a residential home. If your loved one has been injured or has fallen ill and you suspect this is due to poor care provided by staff at the home, you may be entitled to make a care home claim.

Expert care home negligence solicitors

Blackwater Law is recognised as having one of the leading teams of medical negligence solicitors and personal injury solicitors in the South East. Their excellent reputation for successfully settling claims and securing maximum compensation amounts for clients means that they advise and represent clients across the country. This recognition comes from the independent directory of the UK’s top law firms, The Legal 500. Blackwater Law has been listed in this directory for several consecutive years now.

Blackwater Law deals with a wide range of cases involving elderly clients that have been injured in an accident in a care home, or a hospital. In the worst cases, those involving fatal accidents and injuries, Blackwater Law advise the family of the deceased, seeking compensation and answers from the defendants.

Our knowledge of the law, experience in care home claim cases and national reputation mean that you can be sure the advice and representation you would receive from Blackwater Law would be some of the best available.

No win, no fee care home claims

Blackwater Law represents all clients making a care home claim on a no-win, no-fee basis. Therefore, you do not need to pay us any money upfront in order to start your claim for compensation. If your claim is unsuccessful, you will not pay us anything towards any legal fees, in fact, you will not pay us anything.

You only pay for our legal services, advice and representation in the event that your claim for negligence is successful. Even then our fee is only a percentage of the compensation amount we have secured for you. The exact percentage will be agreed upon with you at the very beginning of your case, so everything is completely transparent.

The impact of negligent care

It is often devastating for you and your family when you find out that your loved one has been receiving poor care whilst in a care home. The unfortunate reality is that by the time the poor standards of care have come to light in the form of physical injury or illness, care levels may actually have been substandard for some time.

As well as physical injuries and illness being caused by neglect and accidents, your loved one’s mental health can also be impacted. In the worst cases, residents of a care home where staff provide negligent care can become reclusive, unsociable and shadows of their former selves. These changes can often be more difficult to observe for you and your family than the physical injury or illness itself.

Poor or negligent care in a care home will also often prolong the recovery period for any injury or illness, unfortunately leading to a vicious circle of poor care – leading to injury or illness – leading to a heavier reliance on care provided – leading to a prolonged period of recovery and potentially further associated poor care or injury in the worst of cases.

Complaining about poor care

If you have concerns about the standard of care being provided, you should follow the process to below. You can contact Blackwater Law at the same time as you go through this process. It is important that at each and every stage of the process you document your correspondence, that which you have sent and received. This correspondence can become crucial evidence if you proceed with a care home negligence claim with Blackwater Law.

Step one – Raise your concerns with the care home management. Write to, or email, the management of the care home, or the home’s designated person for dealing with complaints. You should clearly state what your concerns are and provide as much detail as possible. This may assist the home in investigating the issues you have raised. Most issues of poor care can be resolved at this early stage. Even if it is resolved at this early stage, this in itself does not prevent you from moving forward with a care home claim. It is important at this stage that, if possible, you have a conversation with your family member and try to establish whether they have been hindering care provision, for instance by refusing care or help.

Step two – If you do not receive a response or one that you are happy with and which you believe addresses your concerns, you should complain to the local government ombudsman. There is one in each county. You may wish also to inform the Care Quality Commission (CQC) but it is important to recognise that the CQC does not investigate individual complaints; it only assesses and reports on general levels of care at each care home. If you are not satisfied with the response of the ombudsmen you can appeal this, but it is likely to require you to obtain legal assistance.

At each stage, be open to dialogue with the other side, particularly at stage 1 where you are dealing directly with the care home.