Princess Royal Hospital pays up for death

Saturday 3rd September 2011, 11:32AM BST.

Harvey Williamson

A family has received a five-figure compensation payout from hospital bosses after a pensioner died following poor treatment at a Shropshire hospital.

The £35,000 paid to Harvey Williamson’s family came even though an inquest ruled there had been no neglect in his case.

Mr Williamson’s family refused to accept the verdict and won the award from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust after starting legal action. The trust also paid the family £110,000 in legal costs.

Former soldier Mr Williamson, who lived in Hollinswood, Telford, was admitted to the town’s Princess Royal Hospital in December 2007 for abdominal surgery but died 11 days later.

An inquest in 2008 ruled out any neglect by the hospital but Mr Williamson’s family were not convinced and hired their own cardiologist, vascular surgeon, radiologist and urologist to examine his files.

Mr Williamson’s son Nick then started legal action against the hospital trust, which admitted it had breached its duty of care and agreed to the payout before the case went to court.

Trust chief executive Adam Cairns said in a letter to the family: “The trust accepts that it breached the duty of care which it owed (to Mr Williamson), which sadly resulted in his death following surgery.”

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