Positive thinking 'helps people recover from whiplash'

When people visit personal injury solicitors Bury with whiplash pain, their lawyers will encourage them to think positively about their case and about their injuries. Positive thinking could not only make them more likely to win their compensation claim, but it could also improve their overall wellbeing, helping them to avoid some of the mental and emotional complications that can come with such a painful injury.

And positive thinking has a range of other benefits as well - in fact, research from the University of Alberta's School of Public Health found that whiplash patients who have positive expectation recover from their injuries three times faster than those who do not.

Positive thinking and whiplash injury claims with personal injury solicitors Bury

Researchers examined 6,000 people who had sustained whiplash in a traffic accident to make the discovery, also finding that those who thought positively about their return to work considered themselves to have recovered 42% faster than those who assumed more negative things about returning.

Furthermore, a related investigation into Swedish whiplash victims found that those who did not think they would make a complete recovery were around four times as likely to still feel symptoms of the injury than those who thought otherwise.

Perhaps people had a realistic assessment of their injuries when contemplating their recovery time, but no win no fee solicitors Bury would point to the wealth of other evidence that has correlated positive thinking and faster recoveries from a huge range of other illnesses.

Indeed, while the research team at the University said they were surprised by their discoveries, positive thinking has helped people recover from a huge range of other health problems - in fact, it is a cornerstone of the placebo effect.

So if you seem anxious about your whiplash injuries and personal injury solicitors try to reassure you and alleviate your stress, they might not only be helping your emotional wellbeing, but could also be reducing your recovery times and help you get back to health as quickly as possible.

If you're suffering from whiplash, speak to a no win no fee solicitor Bury to claim compensation!

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

Can a lack of household maintenance lead to personal injury claims?

Poor standards of home maintenance could be putting homeowners at risk of dealing with a personal injury solicitor Blackburn after guests are injured on their premises.

While most compensation claims dealt by a no win no fee solicitor Blackburn are against companies and organisations, some cases are against homeowners, who have failed to ensure their property is safe for guests and the general public.

The recent Halifax Insurance Home Maintenance Monitor found that 11% of all residences in Britain require some major improvements, with around half needing some minor work.

Not only could regular maintenance and improvements reduce the likelihood of a homeowner facing personal injury solicitors Blackburn in court, but dealing with problems early will ensure they do not worsen and will save money in the long-term. Therefore, Halifax advised homeowners to complete the following tasks:

-          Check the loft has enough ventilation and insulation

-          Have the boiler, central heating and gas fire checked by a Gas Safe registered professional every year

-          Call the experts for plumbing, electrical or gas work and check references when choosing a professional

-          Keep an eye out for emerging problems

-          Speak to your insurance company if you are carrying out an extension, conversion or any similar work

-          Check that the roof is in a good condition

-          Clear leaves and debris out of drains and gutters to prevent overflows, blocks or slips and trips

-          Secure gates and outbuilding doors

-          Secure external light fittings

The Halifax research revealed that 23% of people have previously ignored a serious home maintenance issue, with some common excuses including being too busy (41%), fear of causing an injury to themselves or another person (29% and not having the correct tools and equipment (36%).

A no win no fee solicitor Blackburn may deal with a number of cases involving failure to properly repair and maintain a household. Landlords can be liable in compensation claims when they have been informed about domestic repairs but have failed to deal with them, previous homeowners who fail to repair a house can face compensation claims if the current homeowners are injured due to this negligence, and people who have been injured in someone else's residence may also be able to claim compensation against the property owner.

If you want to find out whether or not you can make a compensation claim, contact personal injury solicitors Blackburn now to discuss your case.

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

How Could Hospitals Improve Treatment Standards?

Personal injury solicitors Manchester are very interested in legislative changes to the NHS. A large proportion of personal injury claims relate to mistreatment in hospitals, and the severity of claimants' injuries are frequently serious.

A recent report by Professor Don Berwick echoed many of the thoughts no win no fee solicitors Manchester have about the NHS. Professor Berwick worked intensively to discover some of the key issues in the UK's healthcare system and how medical negligence claims arise, investigating other healthcare systems internationally to inform his understanding.

He made four key findings about the running of hospitals and patient safety. These are:

Patient safety and the quality of patient care should be of paramount importance

Employees should be supported in their personal development, allowing them to improve their capabilities

Carers and patients should feel like they are heard and should be empowered and engaged

Data should be completely transparent

Criminal charges following clinical negligence compensation claims?

While clinical negligence compensation and full investigations into what went wrong is enough for most patients, Professor Berwick suggested that criminal sanctions may be suitable in some instances, suggesting that a number of new offenses should be created that relate to clinical negligence. These would deal with instances of wilful neglect or recklessness, as well as cases in which healthcare organisations obstruct the disclosure of relevant information or withhold this information, and could apply to organisations as well as individuals.

The report stated that these criminal sanctions should only be used rarely and should not be used to punish people for punitive errors. While personal injury solicitors Manchester may be apprehensive about the value of creating new crimes, having potential criminal sanctions against hiding information could help rightful claimants succeed in medical negligence claims. Individual practitioners already face being struck off the register and forbidden to work in the UK, but institutional negligence can frequently go unpunished.

Until healthcare systems become perfect, people will always want to visit a no win no fee solicitor after being the victim of medical negligence. Professor Berwick's suggestions could help to reduce this demand, although it will be impossible to eradicate it.

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What is the law about first aid at work?

Personal injury solicitors Burnley frequently see people with serious injuries that relate to a failure to provide first aid at work. A minor laceration can become infected without first aid, people can feel like they have no-one to turn to if they start suffering from musculoskeletal disorders or industrial illnesses, and minor injuries can quickly become significantly more serious due to this negligence.

According to the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981, all employers must provide first aid facilities and equipment, and should have staff trained in first aid to treat people's illnesses. These provisions must be adequate and appropriate for the working environment, and while there is no legal duty for employers to protect the general public through first aid, it is best practice to consider these people when deciding what is required.

No win no fee solicitors would like to warn employers that these regulations apply to all employers, including those with fewer than five members of staff.

What are the minimum requirements for first aid?

If the risks in a business are very limited, then a business will require the smallest level of first aid provision. This will include:

·         A properly-stocked first aid box

·         Information sheets, which are provided to employees or put up in obvious places and detail first aid arrangements

·         An appointed first-aider

The Health and Safety Executive notes while there are no legal obligations regarding which items should be kept in first aid boxes, there are a number of general items that suit every business. These are:

20 sterile plasters of assorted sizes
Six safety pins
Two eye pads
Four triangular bandages
Disposable gloves
Six medium wound dressings
Two large wound dressings

Bandages, eye pads, wound dressings and eye pads should be sterile, and individually wrapped if possible.

If you are unsure what first aid equipment is required for your business, then speak to a health and safety consultant to find out. It is better to deal with health and safety now than to explain why you didn't deal with it to a no win no fee solicitor Burnley.

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

Silicosis in Industrial Disease Claims

One of the lung diseases people visit no win no fee solicitors Bury about is silicosis. This is caused when workers inhale silica dust. Its symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath, rapid or difficult breathing, fatigue, chest pain and weight loss. The disease is incurable, and can put sufferers at a significantly higher risk of a range of other dangerous illnesses, including bronchitis, lung cancer, progressive massive fibrosis and tuberculosis.

It used to be more commonplace in the UK, but is not commonly seen by personal injury solicitors Bury any more. Despite this, it is the most common occupational lung disease in the world, with the majority of cases occurring in developing countries or heavy manufacturing countries.

Nonetheless, according to reports from the Industrial Injury DisablementBenefit scheme, 2008 saw 85 cases of silicosis in the UK, while 2007 saw 95. Furthermore, 14 people in the country died from the condition in 2006, while 7 died in 2007.

Silicosis takes three main forms:

Simple chronic silicosis

This condition takes over 20 years to develop and is generally seen among those who have experienced low-level silica dust exposure. In its early stages, it leads to lack of breath and coughing, and sufferers often do not know they are ill.

Accelerated silicosis

When people experience high levels of exposure to silica dust, they can develop accelerated silicosis within five to ten years. While this is similar to simple chronic silicosis, it poses a significantly higher risk of complications.

Acute silicosis

People exposed to very high levels of silica dust can develop acute silicosis. This takes from just a few weeks to five years to develop, and its risks are significantly higher than other forms of the condition. This form of silicosis is significantly more likely to lead to death than other forms, and no win no fee solicitors Bury can achieve higher payments for sufferers of this condition.

Some of the occupations that pose a silicosis risk include:

-Sandblasting

-Quarrying

-Mining

-Foundry work

-Ceramic work

-Brick work

Employers in these sectors can reduce their likelihood of facing personal injury solicitors Bury by providing their staff with personal protective equipment. Respirators are incredibly important for people who work around silica dust and are associated with a significant reduction in death rates.

If you have developed silicosis due to an employer's negligence, then contact no win no fee solicitors Bury today! 

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

No Win No Fee Solicitors Blackburn Analyse Wasteful Medical Tests

While a range of errors can lead to people making medical negligence claims with personal injury solicitors Blackburn, unnecessary tests and procedures play a factor in many of them. While these procedures can be expensive and wasteful, in some circumstances they can also be harmful.

As a result, healthcare specialists from across the US have made a number of recommendations that could prevent these potentially dangerous interventions and prevent people from claiming compensation with a no win no fee solicitor Blackburn. This advice has been published by the Society of Hospital Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, and formed part of a study led by Baylor College of Medicine and Children's Hospital of San Antonio Fellow in Hospital Medicine Richard Quinonez, MD, FAAP.

Five recommendations for adult treatment were made by the specialists - these are:

• Do not leave urinary catheters in place on non-critical patients for monitoring of output, convenience or incontinence.
• Unless inpatients are likely to suffer from gastrointestinal complications, do not prescribe them with stress ulcer prophylaxis medications.
• There is no need for repetitive chemistry and blood count testing when lab and clinical results are stable.
• Unless there is a protocol that covers continuation, hospitals should not order continual telemetry monitoring in rooms other than the intensive care unit.
• Red blood cell transfusions to reach arbitrary haematocrit or haemoglobin thresholds should be avoided except for in cases of stroke, heart failure or active coronary disease.

The specialists also made five suggestions that could prevent children or their parents making cases with personal injury solicitors Blackburn. These are:

• Children with asthma and bronchitis should not receive chest radiographs. False positives lead to the overuse of antibiotics and the tests result in radiation exposure.
• Children with bronchiolitis should not be treated with bronchodilators, as these have very limited effectiveness.
• Continuous pulse oximetry, which measures the blood's oxygen saturation, should not be routinely used in minors, except in cases where the child requires supplemental oxygen.
• Children younger than two with lower respiratory tract infections should not be systemically treated with corticosteroids.
• Infants with gastro-oesophageal reflux should not be routinely treated with acid suppression therapy, as this does not appear to work better than placebo and can have harmful side effects.

While these suggestions were made with US doctors in mind, British hospitals could also implement them. This could save money, improve treatment standards and prevent people from visiting a no win no fee solicitor Blackburn to make a medical negligence claim.

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

What Prescription Errors do no win no Fee Solicitors See?

Prescription errors are occasionally seen by a no win no fee solicitor Burnley. They include from accidents involving administering the wrong drug, providing the wrong dosage, or failing to monitor a prescription in an unacceptable way, and can cause patients' conditions to worsen, can lead to overdoses, or cause significant adverse effects.

Research from the General Medical Council suggested that one in 20 prescriptions contains some form of error, with 4% of these errors described as 'severe', 54% moderate and 42% minor. Overall, a total of 1 prescription item in every 550 led to a severe error.

This means that one in eight patients has experienced some form of prescription error, with this rising to around two-fifths of all patients over the age of 75. When people suffer an injury after a prescription error that resulted from a doctor's negligence, they may be able to make a compensation claim with personal injury solicitors Burnley.

What kind of prescription errors does a no-win no fee solicitor Burnley see?

The study revealed that 18% of all these mistakes related to the dose or strength of a drug, 30% involved failure to include all relevant details on the prescription, and 11% related to the timing of doses.

Some medicines were more likely to lead to prescription errors than others. People with skin disorders, eye disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, cancer, immunotherapy, infections and cardiovascular disease patients are therefore particularly likely to visit personal injury solicitors Burnley after a prescription error.

Healthcare professionals are therefore advised to take the risk of prescription errors seriously and be vigilant to ensure they do not occur. Audits into prescriptions, improved training, and alerts to inform doctors that they need to monitor a patient and conduct blood tests after prescribing certain drugs could all help to prevent this kind of incident from occuring.

If you've been injured by a prescription error, talk to a no win no fee solicitor Burnley about your concerns. You may be able to make a medical negligence claim, helping you out financially and seeing the circumstances of your injury investigated.

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

No Win no Fee Solicitor Burnley Warns Against Holiday Drunkenness

People heading on their holidays should take steps to protect themselves and ensure they do not need to visit personal injury solicitors Blackburn when they arrive back at home. One of the biggest factors in holiday accidents is drunkenness - people are more likely to get into trouble when they are intoxicated, and this is especially the case when they are on holiday.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has revealed that 51% of Brits aged 16 to 24 say they are likely to drink more alcohol on holiday than they would at home. Peer pressure was cited as a factor by 40% of these respondents, while cheaper alcohol prices were cited by 62%.

Being drunk on holiday is a dangerous game, however, with holiday drunkenness frequently seen by a no win no fee solicitor Blackburn. According to the FCO, 23% of young holidaymakers have gone for a swim while intoxicated on holiday, 11% admit they have put themselves in a vulnerable position with a stranger when drunk abroad, and 26% have done something else they feel ashamed of when drunk on holiday.

Personal injury solicitors Burnley make alcohol abuse warning people should not just control their alcohol intake while abroad, however, and the summer heat can encourage drinkers to consume more than they otherwise would. Nobody wants to have to see no win no fee solicitors Burnley because they were in an accident while drunk, and drunkenness could be an indicator of a claimant's fault. If this is the case, it will impact the value of their compensation claim, as the claimant's 'contributory negligence' will have played a role in the incident.

Friends must look out for each other and ensure they get home safely and do not drink too much alcohol. Each individual also has a responsibility to ensure their own health and safety, and monitoring alcohol intake is an essential part of this.

People should try to stick to the healthy drinking limits and ensure they stay hydrated. While no win no free solicitors Burnley can help you out when you arrive in the UK, you will have to take care of yourself when you go abroad.

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Posted in Health Care, Personal Injury

Causes of Back Injuries

Despite of all safety measures and precautions, every workplace carries risks of the accidents. There are the chances of slip, trip and fall from height, hazardous chemical exposure, electric shocks, industrial diseases and many other types of accidents in the workplace. Workers do suffer mild to serious injuries in the workplace including broken bones, fractures, sprains, amputations, soft tissue damage, head and brain injury, neck and back injury and even deaths. Back injuries are very common in workplace accidents. Even a minor back pain limits the worker’s ability to perform well. Workplace accidents are the leading cause of the back injuries.

Causes of Back Injuries

Different causes of back injuries include;

• Slips and Trips
Wet floors, oil spillages, trailing wires, distracting objects and uneven floors are the major cause of slips and trips at the workplace. Leading injury as a result of slip and trip is severe back pain and spinal cord damage.

• Fall from Height

Another serious cause of back injuries is falling from heights. Falling can damage the back severely and sometimes it leads to the permanent disability. Severe back injury does not let the person sit and walk properly. It can result in job loss of the worker.

• Lifting and Manual Handling

Improper lifting techniques and poor manual handling practices are the major cause of back injuries. Lifting heavy objects in awkward postures leads to the back injury. Continuous and repetitive movements in doing any task also result in back pains.

• Faulty Equipment 

Faulty chair or defective ladder or tables with the chances of collapse are another cause of back injuries. If the seat of any employee is not comfortable to sit then it can also invite back pains.

Symptoms of Back Injury 

A person suffering from back injury experiences different type of symptoms that may include;

• Serious neck and shoulder pain
• Swelling of neck and shoulder
• Weakness and lacking stability
• Muscles and body stiffness
• Severe lower back pain
• Headache and vision loss
• Sleeping problems and dizziness
• Concentration difficulties and memory loss

A victim of back injury can develop all the above described symptoms depending on the severity of injury. Treatment options for the back injuries are regular exercise, massage, physical therapy or medication.

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Posted in Health Care