| Many compensation claims for MRSA, dubbed the | | | | done to eradicate this bug. |
| hospital ‘superbug’, are still being brought | | | | One would presume that MRSA claims were |
| to court, even given the government’s claims | | | | generally processed in the form of clinical |
| that hospitals have been cleaned up and cases of | | | | negligence claims and while this can be the case, |
| MRSA have been significantly reduced in recent | | | | many people successfully claim compensation for |
| years. Claim-Easy, the claims management | | | | MRSA as a breach of workplace safety. As it is |
| company that aims to simplify all compensation | | | | difficult to know the exact time a person |
| claims, notes that MRSA claims can possibly be | | | | becomes infected with MRSA, it can be hard to |
| processed as a breach of workplace safety as | | | | successfully attribute blame to the NHS when |
| well as a case of clinical negligence. | | | | someone contracts the bug in one of its hospitals. |
| MRSA is a strain of the Staphylococcus aureus | | | | Even government MRSA advisers are clear that |
| bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. It is | | | | the NHS should be held accountable and believe |
| particularly harmful to people who are deemed to | | | | that pursuing claims of negligence using legislation |
| be ‘at risk’, such as hospital patients and | | | | more common to industrial disputes is the way |
| others with a weakened immune system. MRSA | | | | forward. Clinical negligence claims tend to be more |
| is often contracted in hospital where people are | | | | successful when concerned with the treatment a |
| not only more susceptible to contract it and less | | | | patient received after contracting MRSA, rather |
| likely to be able to fight it off, but where unclean | | | | than with contracting the bug itself. However, |
| wards and staff can lead to the spread of the | | | | there have been a number of successful |
| ‘superbug’. Statistics for fatalities and | | | | compensation claims using the Control of |
| illnesses conflict given the pressure on the | | | | Substances Harmful to Health (COSHH) regulation |
| government to clean up NHS hospitals and stop | | | | which requires employers to control exposure to |
| the spread of the bug, but there is little doubt | | | | hazardous substances to prevent ill health. |
| across the board that it is still a real problem. | | | | Lawyers can argue that MRSA can be defined in |
| MRSA compensation claims are still being | | | | this way and as it applies to staff within the |
| processed, indicating that there is still much to be | | | | hospital, it should also apply to the patients. |