§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2018

Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

[2018] UKSC 50·Supreme Court of the United Kingdom·10 October 2018

A man with a head injury was told by an A&E receptionist he would wait four to five hours, left after 19 minutes, and collapsed at home with a brain bleed. The Supreme Court held the hospital owed him a duty not to give misleading information about waiting times and that his leaving did not break the chain of causation.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

Not stated

Claim type

A&E Negligence

Decided

Appeal decision

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Croydon Health Services NHS Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Extradural haematoma after a head injury; delayed treatment left the claimant with a severe, permanent left hemiplegia

Specialty: Accident and Emergency · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“For these reasons I would allow the appeal and remit the case to the Queen's Bench Division for the assessment of damages.”

The money

No sum stated; liability established and the case was remitted to the Queen's Bench Division for damages to be assessed.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

An NHS trust's duty of care in A&E starts at the reception desk, and wrong information given by non-clinical staff can found a negligence claim.

About a&e negligence claims →

§ MORE A&E NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

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.

Mixed outcome

Arksey v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2019] EWHC 1276 (QB)·2019·Liability decided at trial

Mrs Arksey attended Addenbrooke's with a warning bleed from a brain aneurysm but was discharged without a CT scan and suffered a catastrophic re-bleed the next day. The court held she had not proved that admitting her would have avoided the re-bleed, though she succeeded on an admitted delay in fitting a shunt for hydrocephalus.

Proving breach of duty in A&E is only half the battle; the claimant must also show that the correct treatment would have prevented the injury in time, which failed here for the main allegation.

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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