NHS Staff Injury Claims – How Much Compensation Can You Claim?

As with any other employer, the NHS has a legal duty of care to protect staff from harm as reasonably possible. If you work for the NHS and have an accident at work, you could be eligible to make an NHS staff injury claim for compensation for your suffering.

Whether you’re an NHS cleaner, surgeon, nurse, doctor, porter, administrator or work in any other role, our team could help. We will review your claim during a no-obligation consultation and provide free advice about your options. If we conclude you have a fair chance of winning your claim, we could ask one of our solicitors to represent you on a No Win No Fee basis.

To learn more about your eligibility to claim NHS staff injury compensation, please read on. Alternatively, call us on 0800 6524 881 to discuss your claim with a specialist.

Am I Eligible To Make An NHS Staff Injury Claim?

Regardless of whether you work in a hospital, an NHS warehouse or in an office, you will have the same legal protection as other NHS colleagues. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 says that employers must protect “the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees” (so far as reasonably practicable). This is their duty of care. If you wish to sue the NHS for a workplace accident, you’ll need to show that:

• The defendant (the NHS) was negligent; which
• Caused an accident to occur; and
• You were injured in that accident.

If you work with one of our personal injury solicitors, they’ll help you to gather evidence to prove how your accident happened and how you suffered. This evidence is vital if you’re to win an NHS staff injury claim, so we’ll review this in more detail later on.

Can I Be Sacked For Claiming Compensation Against The NHS?

If you make a genuine personal injury claim, you should not be dismissed or treated unfairly simply because you have brought it. If this does happen, you may have grounds for a separate employment claim, depending on the circumstances.

Types Of NHS Workplace Accidents That Could Lead To A Compensation Claim

There are a variety of different scenarios in NHS workplaces that could result in compensation claims. We’ve given a few examples here:

• Injuries due to slip, trip and fall accidents – Wet flooring, ripped or loose carpeting, loose wires, spilt liquids, and obstacles lying around carelessly are typical causes of slip, trip and fall accidents.
• Muscular injuries – These may result from manually handling and moving patients without proper training in correct lifting techniques. Back pain is a common type of muscular injury among NHS staff.
• Needlestick injuries – These are injuries caused by syringes and other sharps.
• Injuries caused by faulty equipment – Outdated equipment or equipment that is not maintained regularly can malfunction and injure the person operating it as well as others in the vicinity.
• Injuries caused by inadequate personal protective equipment – Inadequate or faulty personal protective equipment, such as gloves and face masks increase the risk of exposure to blood-borne and other communicable diseases.
• Assault in the workplace – Physical assault by a violent patient, a patient’s family member, or even another worker, can leave NHS staff injured. Emotional or verbal assault can leave the staff member feeling traumatised and unable to work.
• Bullying and harassment in the workplace – Like any other workplace, bullying and harassment occur within the NHS too. When it does, it can cause tremendous mental stress and anxiety.

Please let us know what injury you’ve suffered, and we’ll review your chances of being compensated for free.

These are only a handful of the different types of workplace accidents that could result in a claim. In general terms, NHS staff injury claims might be possible if their accident was caused by:

• Inadequate safety training.
• A lack of supervision.
• Missing or unsuitable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• A failure to conduct regular risk assessments of your role.
• Tiredness because you were asked to work too long or were not allowed proper rest breaks.

As per the Health and Safety at Work Act, the NHS must take all reasonable steps to try to keep you safe while you’re at work. If they don’t and that causes you to be injured in an accident at work, we could help you claim compensation for your suffering.

Common Injury Claims From Accidents At Work

Based on all of the above information, it may be possible to claim for any injury sustained while working for the NHS. Some of the more common injury claims from accidents at work include:

Please let us know what injury you’ve suffered working for the NHS, and we’ll review your chances of being compensated for free.

How Much Compensation For An NHS Staff Injury Claim?

When making a personal injury claim against the NHS, you’ll have to consider how you’ve suffered as a result of your injuries. The physical and mental effects are covered by the general damages element of your claim, whereas special damages cover any financial impact.

If your NHS staff injury claim is taken on by a personal injury solicitor from our team, they’ll make sure they fully understand the extent of your suffering to try and secure the maximum level of compensation possible. Depending on how your injuries have affected you, compensation could be claimed to cover:

• Physical pain and suffering.
• Psychological suffering such as distress, anxiety or depression.
• Lost earnings.
• Loss of amenity (the impact the injuries have on your usual activities and hobbies).
• Care costs.
• Travel expenses.
• Medical costs (covering physiotherapy or private treatment in some cases).
• Future loss of earnings (for long-term injuries).
• Home adaptations (ramps, support rails etc,) to help you cope with a long-term disability.

Call us on 0800 6524 881 today if you’d like to discuss what compensation you might be entitled to.

NHS Staff Injury Compensation Calculator

We’ve added some potential compensation amounts for NHS staff injuries below. Our calculator includes a range of different injuries, so you can get some idea of payout amounts for general damages:

If you go on to make an NHS staff compensation claim, your solicitor will arrange for an independent expert to assess you. They’ll prepare a report to explain your prognosis after your meeting. Your solicitor will be able to offer a more personalised compensation estimate once this report has been received.

Evidence To Support An NHS Staff Compensation Claim

To help prove how you were injured and who was responsible for your injuries, you’ll need to provide supporting evidence for your claim. If you can’t, the NHS’s insurers or legal team may refuse to compensate you for your suffering. Therefore, to try and make the claims process easier, you could provide:

• Accident report forms. These are usually a legal requirement, and your copy could help prove when your accident at work happened.
• Medical notes. Your solicitor can ask for a copy of your medical records following treatment for your injuries. These could prove how severe your injuries were.
• Witness details. Your solicitor might ask anybody else who saw you being injured for a statement about what they saw.
• CCTV footage. If your NHS accident was caught on a security camera, you’re entitled to ask for a copy of any relevant footage.
• Photographs. As well as taking pictures of any visible injuries as evidence, you should try to take pictures at the accident scene. These could make it easier to prove the cause of the accident.

If you need any help securing evidence, or you’d like us to review what you’ve already collected, please contact us here.

Time Limits For Claiming NHS Staff Injury Compensation

The time limit for personal injury claims is generally 3-years, though exceptions might apply in some cases.

For NHS staff injury claims, this will usually begin on:

• The date you were injured in an accident or incident at work; or
• The date of knowledge. For example, an RSI injury was diagnosed by your doctor and linked to the negligence.

The claims process can involve quite a bit of legwork by your solicitor. Therefore, it’s often best to begin early so that they can gather evidence easily and order medical reports quickly.

If liability is accepted for your accident but it isn’t yet clear how seriously you’ve been affected by your injuries, your solicitor could ask for interim payments to be made before your claim is finalised to help you cope with any immediate financial pressures.

Claims can take as little as 6 to 9 months to be processed if they’re straightforward, but more than a year if extra investigation or negotiation is required.

Starting An NHS Staff Injury Claim

If you have decided to claim compensation against the NHS following an accident at work, we’re ready to help. Simply contact our team on 0800 6524 881, and we’ll review your options with you for free.

If your case is accepted by a personal injury solicitor from our team, they’ll remove a lot of the stress involved by working on a No Win No Fee basis. That means you’ll only pay for their work if a compensation payment is received.

Please feel free to ask any further questions about NHS staff injury claims via our free live chat service.