MRSA Claims: Clinical Negligence or Workplace Safety Breach?

Many compensation claims for MRSA, dubbed the hospital ‘superbug’, are still being brought to court, even given the government’s claims that hospitals have been cleaned up and cases of MRSA have been significantly reduced in recent years. Claim-Easy, the claims management company that aims to simplify all compensation claims, notes that MRSA claims can possibly be processed as a breach of workplace safety as well as a case of clinical negligence.

MRSA is a strain of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. It is particularly harmful to people who are deemed to be ‘at risk’, such as hospital patients and others with a weakened immune system. MRSA is often contracted in hospital where people are not only more susceptible to contract it and less likely to be able to fight it off, but where unclean wards and staff can lead to the spread of the ‘superbug’. Statistics for fatalities and illnesses conflict given the pressure on the government to clean up NHS hospitals and stop the spread of the bug, but there is little doubt across the board that it is still a real problem. MRSA compensation claims are still being processed, indicating that there is still much to be done to eradicate this bug.

One would presume that MRSA claims were generally processed in the form of clinical negligence claims and while this can be the case, many people successfully claim compensation for MRSA as a breach of workplace safety. As it is difficult to know the exact time a person becomes infected with MRSA, it can be hard to successfully attribute blame to the NHS when someone contracts the bug in one of its hospitals. Even government MRSA advisers are clear that the NHS should be held accountable and believe that pursuing claims of negligence using legislation more common to industrial disputes is the way forward. Clinical negligence claims tend to be more successful when concerned with the treatment a patient received after contracting MRSA, rather than with contracting the bug itself. However, there have been a number of successful compensation claims using the Control of Substances Harmful to Health (COSHH) regulation which requires employers to control exposure to hazardous substances to prevent ill health. Lawyers can argue that MRSA can be defined in this way and as it applies to staff within the hospital, it should also apply to the patients. The Department of Health has never explicitly commented on whether MRSA claims are covered by COSHH, however a spokeswoman was quoted as saying “There will be cases where healthcare was negligent and it is reasonable that claims might be made in these cases”.

Clearly MRSA claims are not straightforward, but it is important that those affected get compensated for such a serious, potentially fatal infection. If you or someone you know has been affected and you want to know more about claiming compensation, visit www.claim-easy.co.uk.