§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2020

Leach v North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

[2020] EWHC 2914 (QB)·High Court (Queen's Bench Division), Newcastle District Registry·30 October 2020

Ms Leach, alone at home with a brain haemorrhage, waited nearly two hours for an ambulance, of which the trust admitted 31 minutes was negligent delay; she went on to develop PTSD. The judge held that the negligent delay made a material contribution to her PTSD, that PTSD cannot be apportioned, and awarded the agreed £40,000.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

£40,000

Claim type

A&E Negligence

Decided

Liability and damages decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Post-traumatic stress disorder following a 109-minute wait for an ambulance after a subarachnoid haemorrhage, 31 minutes of which was admitted negligent delay

Specialty: Ambulance / emergency response; psychiatry · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“Accordingly, there will be judgment for the claimant in the sum of £40,000.”

The money

Quantum agreed before trial at £40,000; judgment entered for £40,000 with no apportionment.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Where a negligent ambulance delay materially contributes to a psychiatric injury like PTSD, the trust is liable for the whole injury and cannot reduce damages by arguing only part of the wait was its fault.

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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