I Was Harmed By A Negligent Nursing Home, Can I Claim?

By Lewis Cobain. Last Updated 28th June 2024. In this online guide, we are going to look at the process of making a compensation claim against a nursing home, and how to report a negligent nursing home prior to the claim. Making a complaint is a precursor to using the services of a personal injury solicitor to process a personal injury claim on your behalf. An important part of the end-to-end process.

You might have questions about the information in this guide, or have unique questions based on your own situation. If so, you can always give our claims team a quick call, any time of the day or night, 7 days a week on 0800 073 8804. They will give you the answers that you need.

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1. What Is Nursing Home Neglect?
2. Reporting Abuse In A Care Home – Claim Time Limits
3. Who Can Report A Negligent Nursing Home?
4. How Do I Report Neglect In A Nursing Home?
5. How Do I Report Neglect In A Self-Funded Nursing Home?
6. Where Do I Report A Care Home To?
7. Local Authorities Safeguarding Duties
8. What If The Nursing Home Resident Refused Care?
9. Special Damages You May Claim
10. No Win No Fee Claims Against Negligent Nursing Homes

What Is Nursing Home Neglect?

Every nursing home has to comply with a large number of regulations (more on this below). Many of these regulations relate to how residents should be treated, the health and safety obligations of the home, and how staff should be trained. Compliance with these regulations is mandatory. Failure to meet legislative obligations could result in the home losing its operating licence.

When some kind of failure in these compliance requirements results in a resident coming to harm in any way, then it could be construed that negligence has taken place on the part of the home operator.

In such cases, if negligence can be proven, then a solicitor might be able to help the injured party or their representative (litigation friend) to make a successful compensation claim. If you would like to find out whether your own situation could leave you in a position to make a claim, please speak to our claims team today.

What Constitutes Neglect In A Nursing Home?

When it comes to defining nursing home negligence, the first thing many people think about is how bad nursing practices can cause harm to a resident. However, there are many more forms of negligence that can take place at a care home that isn’t clinical in nature. For example, poor care could result in injuries such as:

• A bed rail injury.
• A bedsore or pressure sore.
• A skull fracture or concussion.
• An infection.
• A break of a bone after a slip, trip or fall accident.

These are all examples of physical harm a resident might suffer due to negligent nursing care. We can help victims of such injuries to make a claim, call our claims team to learn how.

Reporting Abuse In A Care Home – Claim Time Limits

This guide discusses how to report a care home, but it’s also important to discuss the limitation period to start a claim. Typically, you should take action within three years of the date that medical negligence occurred or three years from the date you became aware that your care home had acted negligently and caused you harm.

Sometimes, there can be exceptions to the time limit. For example, if an injured person does not have the mental capacity to claim. In this case, the limitation period would only commence if they were to ever regain the mental capacity to make decisions on their own.

In cases of exceptions to the time limit, a litigation friend could potentially support such a claimant during the suspended period.

If you have any questions about reporting abuse in a care home, our advisors could potentially help you. Get in touch and we can potentially put you in touch with one of our solicitors. They have years of experience and can discuss examples of incidents in a care home they have dealt with.

Who Can Report A Negligent Nursing Home?

Before we answer questions such as where do I report care home abuse? We need to discuss just who is able to make a complaint. There are a number of different legal entities that might make a complaint, such as:

• A person that is receiving care in a nursing home.
• A representative that has been given permission by the affected resident to make a complaint.
• A person that may be affected by the actions of the local authority.
• The partner or person caring for another person.
• A complaint can be made by anybody on behalf of a victim without their permission, if they are acting within the remit of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

If you are not sure whether you are in a position to make a claim about negligence care, please call our claims team to find out.

How Do I Report Neglect In A Nursing Home?

How do I report a nursing home to the state? There is a well-defined procedure that must be followed when a complaint is made to the local authority. And this is:

1. Try and solve the problem through negotiation with the local authority. If you cannot reach an amicable resolution, move on to step two.
2. You can move on to make a proper, formal complaint to the local authority. Be sure to follow the procedure for making a complaint that your local authority operates. If this complaint fails, move on to step 3.
3. You can take your complaint further, to the Social Care Ombudsman or the Local Government. You can also consider taking legal action at this stage.

This is the three-step process for making a complaint and proceeding through the stages to a situation where a compensation claim might be possible. Speak to one of our claim advisors to learn more about this.

How Do I Report Neglect In A Self-Funded Nursing Home?

If you are a resident in a care home that you pay for yourself, the above process is a little different in this case. It would look like this:

1. Try to resolve the problem by making an informal complaint to the care home operator, and try to reach an acceptable resolution. If this fails, move on to step 2.
2. Make a complaint to the Social Care Ombudsman or the Local Government. You can also consider taking legal action at this stage.

As you can see, the local authority is not involved in the complaint procedure when a resident in a self-funded care home makes a complaint. If you are in any confusion over who to make a complaint against, ask our claims team.

Where Do I Report A Care Home To?

Part of the answer to the question, how do I report neglect in a nursing home? is that at different stages of the complaint process you will need to report the complaint to specific entities, and these are:

• The operator of the care home or their representative (manager, supervisor, etc.)
• Your local authority (if the care home operator did not resolve your complaint in a satisfactory manner, and you are resident in a state-funded home).
• The local Social Care Ombudsman or Local Government (if you are a resident in a self-funded home, or as a resident in a state-funded home the local authority did not resolve your complaint in a satisfactory manner).
• The Care Quality Commission (as a last resort).

If you want some advice on who to make a complaint to, please speak to a member of our claims team.

Local Authorities Safeguarding Duties

When the local authority receives a complaint about a care home, they must investigate with certain objectives in mind, and these are:

• Find out all the facts.
• Work out what the resident wants resolving.
• Look at how these wants could be met.
• Make sure the resident is protected from negligence and abuse.
• Decide whether any follow-up action is appropriate.
• Try to reach a resolution that suits all parties involved, but protects the rights of the resident.

If you believe that your local authority has not disbursed its responsibilities properly, you may be in a position to make a claim. Our team can tell you more about this.

What If The Nursing Home Resident Refused Care?

A resident of a care home has the right to refuse certain aspects of the care that they are provided. In this case, a care home would likely reply to any complaint about this aspect of the care service, that the service is below standard because of this refusal.

But the care home has to keep a written record of when a resident has refused care, what kind of care they refused, and why. If there is no written record, then the defence of saying that this is the reason the service was sub-standard would not be valid.

Special Damages You May Claim

If your personal injury lawyer is successful in processing your claim, the overall settlement you are offered out of court or awarded in court will be made up of a number of different kinds of damages based on the circumstances of your claim.

General damages is a catch-all term for all of the kinds of damages that are related to physical harm. The compensation awarded for general damages is driven by several factors, such as the level of pain and suffering the victim went through, the kinds of treatment they had, and also whether there will be any long-term health problems. General damages might include:

• Permanent or long-term disabilities, that will have a negative effect on the life of the victim.
• Psychological damage such as depression or anxiety.
• Being subjected to traumatic treatment.
• General pain and suffering.
• Metal shock or trauma.

Special damages are the other side of the coin. They are paid to claimants to compensate them for financial and other losses. In the case of expenses that have already been incurred, the claimant will have to provide bills, invoices, receipts and the like to prove this spending. Typical examples of special damages could include:

• To compensate for a reduction in future earnings.
• To claim back lost income.
• For the cost of private medical treatment.
• To cover the cost of care at home.
• To claim back out of pocket expenses.

These are some of the more common kinds of damages, but there are more. If you would like to talk over your claim and find out what kinds of damages you might be able to claim for, please speak to one of our advisors.

No Win No Fee Claims Against Negligent Nursing Homes

A No Win No Fee lawyer can help you to make a compensation claim in a way that will minimise your exposure to financial risk. This is because you don’t have to pay the lawyer’s fees until the claim has been won.

There is no charge to start working on the claim or while it is being processed. You also don’t pay your solicitor a fee if the claim fails. If the claim is won though, the solicitor will ask you to play a small, legally capped fee, known as a success fee.

To speak to an advisor about No Win No Fee solicitors You can contact our claims team on 0800 073 8804 to learn how to proceed.