Patient who was abused in hospital is awarded £70,000.
We specialise in hospital and medical abuse claims, dealing with compensation claims nationwide. If you would like a free consultation with our independently recommended abuse lawyers then contact our confidential helpline on 0333 888 0445 or email us at [email protected].
In a case study published on this website we gave details of a claim we successfully concluded involving a patient who was abused in hospital while receiving psychiatric treatment. Unfortunately the case was not a one-off. Our specialist team has just settled another compensation claim on behalf of a client who was also abused while she was a patient in an NHS psychiatric unit.
In this later case the abuse was committed by an occupational therapist. It took place both in hospital and after our client was discharged. When she eventually felt able to report the abuse her accusations were dismissed and the police refused to take any action.
Many years passed before she decided to get specialist legal advice by calling our helpline for a free consultation with an abuse lawyer. Although her claim was by then technically ‘out of time’ we nevertheless offered to take it on and work on a no win, no fee basis.
While claims should generally be made within three years, the courts do allow abuse survivors some leeway on time limits and we were able to establish that in this instance our client should be able to pursue her compensation claim.
The NHS quickly accepted that they were legally responsible for the abuse carried out by the OT who was employed by them when it had occurred.
After obtaining reports from independent medical experts on the effect of the abuse on our client, we were able to reach an out of court settlement, with our client receiving £70,000 compensation.