controversial but i would probably create some law that prevent any litigation of the NHS. If you're happy to use the NHS and they **** up, thats just tough ****. Obviously anyone actively sabotaging their patients will stay go to prison but i wonder how much money the NHS wastes on paying people out/chancers/making sure everything is filled in correctly.
Tricky one this tbh. There are genuine cases of malpractice (not sabotage) which doctors/hospitals should be held accountable for. Particularly where the most vulnerable are concerned like recent cases with pregnant women or children like the boy at the hospital in Rotherham.
I think the laws for litigation should be tightened so that chancers and "ambulance chasing" legal firms can't exploit the system for a payout.
I also think that medical professionals and hospitals should feel some degree of responsibility hanging over them. And if you take away any form of litigation then hubris and arrogance sets in.
True story mate - my mum had throat cancer 11 years ago. She had to go in for chemotherapy. Eventually they let her go home and only come in for the 3/4 days to have the chemo then go home and come for the next cycle. And it was usually at night time. On one occasion she went in, the nurse put the canula in and attached the chemo drip. She then left, it was the night shift, fewer nurses, nobody checked on my mum for 6 hours.
Turns out the nurse had missed the vein. For 6 hours that highly toxic drug was going into my mum's arm burning pretty much every nerve and cell in her lower arm and hand. By the end her arm and hand were dark brown and almost paralysed. It took years of physio and all sorts of topical medicine and massages etc. She still can't hold things properly with her right hand, but thankfully she's ok.
My mum was frail and all us siblings had been involved throughout the treatment so the consultant called the whole family in the next day along with the MacMillan nurse. We weren't looking for no pay out although no doubt we had a slam dunk case for probably tens of thousands. We weren't interested because all we cared about was the state of our mum and what it meant for her arm, her hand, and the cancer treatment. And ALL we were looking for was some acknowledgment that they had failed my mum, some contrition and to show they cared. And tbf to the consultant and staff they did just that.
And that was enough. Even for my mum because in her mind, they're not waking up in the morning to screw someone's arm, leg or life over. They're working tirelessly to save lives - her life. My mum never had a bad word to say because she put it in context, they'd done so much for her, and that consultant and even the nurse have probably saved many lives.
Btw the consultant made a point of outlining the procedure for making a complaint and that the hospital had accepted liability. My mum wasn't interested and told him there and then, as did the rest of us.
I'll tell you something for nothing though, they looked after her like gold after that lol.