Prisoners and medical negligence claims
Arguably as a result of an increasing prison population, coupled with budgetary restraints in the prison service and the NHS, medical negligence claims from prisoners have been on the rise. Indeed, over £10 million in compensation has been awarded to prisoners over the last five years, and a significant proportion of this has been as a result of medical negligence claims.
What level of healthcare are prisoners entitled to?
Under the European Convention on Human Rights, the state has an obligation to protect the life of those in custody. Accordingly, prisoners are entitled to the same level of healthcare as any other member of the population.
Typical claims
A lot of the medical negligence claims brought by prisoners relate to treatment received from doctors who visit the prisons, and many relate to a delay in diagnosis. This is in part because the prison healthcare services are stretched to their limits as result of a high prison population.
Often nurses may screen prisoners first, and then determine whether their illness or condition complained of warrants proper examination by a doctor, which can lead to problems being overlooked. In addition, dealing with the healthcare of prisoners is complicated by the fact that a large proportion of them suffer from psychological difficulties, substance abuse problems or both. Sometimes these may mask other problems, which are consequently not recognised or adequately treated.
Another type of medical negligence claim that is common amongst prisoners concerns failures of healthcare professionals to refer them to an external expert for further tests or treatment. This may occur as a result of administrative errors, cancellations due to a shortage of prison staff to accompany the prisoner, or problems occurring as a result of the prisoner being transferred to a different prison.
Establishing medical negligence
Medical professionals providing a service to prisoners owe them a ‘duty of care’, which means that they are responsible for providing an acceptable level of care to the patient. Medical negligence is a professional negligence by act or omission on the part of the medical practitioner (doctor, nurse, dentist etc.) whereby they have breached their duty of care towards the patient and their actions have caused injury or death.
The standard of care expected from a prison doctor or other medical practitioner working in a prison is that of the ordinary, competent practitioner who professes to have that particular skill. This means that they will be judged on exactly the same basis as a doctor operating outside of a prison.
In order to establish whether there has been a breach of that duty of care, the courts will assess whether the defendant acted in accordance with a practice accepted as proper at that time by a responsible body of medical opinion skilled in that particular art. Moreover, even if the act or omission is considered to be a breach of care, the claimant must prove on a balance of probabilities that the medical professional’s breach caused the damage claimed.
If the prisoner can establish that there was medical negligence, then they may be able to claim general damages for pain and suffering, special damages for any past financial losses and compensation for future losses.
- Source:
- FindLaw
Let the advisors at Contact Law, a service of FindLaw, guide you through the process of hiring a qualified solicitor to meet your specific needs:
- 5,000 solicitors objectively screened
- Secure and private service
- Expertise for your needs
- Contact Law is a service of FindLaw UK
Call 0800 1777 167
Articles
Community
Blog
