§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2017

Spearman v Royal United Bath Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2017] EWHC 3027 (QB)·High Court (Queen's Bench Division)·4 December 2017

A man with type 1 diabetes was brought to A&E after a hypoglycaemic attack, left the department within about 15 minutes, climbed five flights of stairs through unsecured doors to a flat roof, and fell into a courtyard. The judge found the Trust liable because it had not risk-assessed or restricted access to the roof, where furniture made the safety barrier easy to climb.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

Not stated

Claim type

A&E Negligence

Decided

Liability decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Royal United Bath Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Severe traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures after falling from a hospital roof into a courtyard

Specialty: Emergency medicine (care of a confused patient) · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“This was an accident which could and should have been prevented and there shall be judgment for the Claimant accordingly.”

The money

Liability only; the judgment contains no figures. Damages were left to be assessed separately, and no deduction was made for contributory negligence.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

A hospital's duty to a confused or vulnerable patient covers the safety of the building and how patients are supervised, not just medical treatment. A patient who cannot appreciate the danger because of his condition is not treated as partly to blame.

About a&e negligence claims →

§ MORE A&E NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

Claimant succeeded

JBX v Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

[2026] EWHC 2294 (KB)·2026·Damages assessed at trial

An eight-year-old brought to Frimley Park Hospital in January 2018 with severe breathing difficulty was discharged the same afternoon instead of being admitted and given steroids; the next day he had a cardiac arrest and catastrophic brain injury. The Trust admitted negligence and causation and this judgment decides disputed heads of damages.

Sending a child home from A&E with signs of life-threatening asthma, rather than admitting and treating, was admitted to be negligent. Once liability is admitted the dispute moves to how care and lost earnings should be valued.

Mixed outcome

MAN v St George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

[2024] EWHC 1304 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

A woman went to A&E with extreme lower-leg pain and was sent home by a nurse practitioner instead of being seen by a senior doctor or referred to surgeons; she developed a necrotising soft tissue infection and lost her leg. The Trust admitted negligence but tried to rely on the nurse's evidence disputing how much pain she reported; the Master ruled that evidence inadmissible because the defence had never properly pleaded that dispute.

An NHS trust cannot admit negligence and then quietly contest the facts at trial without pleading them. Severe, out-of-proportion pain in a limb is a recognised warning sign of necrotising infection that calls for senior review.

Claimant succeeded

Phoebe Charmaine Pickering v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2022] EWHC 1171 (QB)·2022·Liability decided at trial

Ms Pickering, who had atrial fibrillation, attended A&E with a cold, white leg; doctors diagnosed a resolved ischaemic event and sent her home on aspirin without heparin or a warning about her stroke risk. She had a major stroke 67 hours later, and the court found that anticoagulation would have prevented it.

A transient blockage in a limb can signal a clot from the heart, and discharging such a patient without anticoagulation or advice was admitted to be negligent. The case turned on causation, with the court accepting expert evidence that heparin would have stopped the clot progressing.

All a&e negligence judgments →

Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0. Judgments from Find Case Law, The National Archives. Summaries are ours; amounts only where printed in the judgment.

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