Personal injury solicitor news
02/08/2007
MSRA claims difficult to prove

MRSA victims could be missing out on medical negligence compensation because pinning the blame on hospitals could be harder than first thought.

Even with the help of a personal injury solicitor, MRSA sufferers are failing to win compensation for their illnesses because it can be difficult to prove where the disease was caught.

The information was reported by Which? after obtaining figures under the Freedom of Information Act, which detailed the number of successful personal injury claims that had been made for medical negligence.

The figures stated that since 2000, the NHS Litigation Authority has acted upon 431 personal injury claims concerning MRSA in England, but only 125 of these claims have received compensation.

An independent personal injury solicitor commented on the recent news and said, "Although MRSA is a massive problem in hospitals, it's difficult to bring a claim because it's hard to say exactly when the person got MRSA.

"If you can show a hospital hasn't complied with infection-control policies, you've got evidence to go on but that isn't enough to say that this person contracted MRSA in hospital and should get damages."