Rheumatology patients have been “left in limbo” by the government’s decision to abandon plans for a group compensation scheme, a top lawyer has said.
Advocate Giles Emmanuel said that many clients’ underlying illnesses had worsened during the period of misdiagnosis and mistreatment, and the potential stresses of litigation increased during the wait for compensation.
The dispute resolution lawyer is a partner at local law firm Viberts, which has sent between 40 and 50 letters of claim in relation to treatment provided by the rheumatology department, and has been approached to represent around 20 families of deceased patients.
Potential legal claims against the General Hospital’s rheumatology department started gathering pace last year after it emerged that hundreds of patients were given powerful drugs they did not need or were misdiagnosed.
The issues were unearthed following a review by the Royal College of Physicians, which described the standard of care as “well below what the review team would consider acceptable” for a contemporary rheumatological service.
Last year, the Health Department said it was “developing an approach to legal matters” and hoped to make settlement offers by the end of 2024 – either on a case-by-case basis or by way of a general compensation scheme.
But in May it emerged that plans for any kind of group compensation scheme for rheumatology patients had been scrapped.
Speaking to Express, Advocate Emmanuel raised concerns about the decision to scrap the group compensation scheme.
“We’ve not had any proposals for schemes,” he said.
“We feel that schemes are by far the best outcomes for everyone – the majority of patients would benefit, and it would be less stressful, take less time, be cheaper for government in comparison to court proceedings which are expensive, slow and stressful.”
Advocate Emmanuel added that there had been no legal or practical justification from the government as to why the group compensation scheme had been discontinued.
He pointed to other successful group compensation schemes like the contaminated blood scandal and the post office scandal in the UK, and the two Historical Abuse Redress Schemes delivered by the Government of Jersey.
He said that clients, who just wanted to progress their claims, had been “left in limbo” – which was adding “injury on top of other injuries”.
Advocate Emmanuel described rheumatology patients whose “bones have been significantly damaged” and said he was commonly seeing clients affected by osteoporosis, psychological injuries – including the mental impact of unnecessarily sheltering during the pandemic – infections, rashes, and ulcers.
As of September, five living rheumatology patients had had their cases referred to the States of Jersey Police, and cases involving 33 deceased patients had been referred to the viscount.