Scott Harding-Lister

When we entrust a loved one to a nursing or care home, we expect safe, dignified and compassionate care. Sadly, failures in staffing, training and oversight can lead to serious harm. As a solicitor with extensive experience in nursing-home claims, including acting for residents and their families against some of the UK’s largest care providers, I have seen the devastating impact of negligent care: pressure injuries that become life-threatening; malnutrition and dehydration that could have been prevented; serious falls; delays in recognising deterioration; and many other failings. In this blog I explain the common areas of breach, how we investigate these claims and why specialist legal advice is crucial.

Common Types of Nursing-Home Negligence

While each case turns on its own facts, the following categories of breach recur frequently in care-home claims:

Pressure injuries
Care homes must, for residents at risk of pressure injury, reposition regularly, provide pressure-redistributing mattresses and maintain meticulous skin care.

Neglecting these measures allows minor redness over bony prominences to develop into deep ulcers, infection and even sepsis.

Poor nutrition and hydration
Residents who struggle with appetite, swallowing or mobility require individualised dietary plans, assistance with feeding and close monitoring of fluid intake. Failure in any of these duties can lead to malnutrition, dehydration, acute kidney injury and increased susceptibility to infection.

Falls
Many falls are preventable through comprehensive risk assessments, adequate supervision and safe environments. Common failings include unsecured wheelchairs, poorly fitting footwear, cluttered corridors and slow call-bell response.

Falls often result in hip fractures, head injuries and lasting mobility loss.

Failure to escalate deterioration
Signs of decline—confusion, fever, breathlessness or unexplained pain—must be assessed promptly and, where indicated, referred for urgent medical review.

Dismissing such signs as mere frailty can allow conditions like urinary or chest infections to progress to sepsis and multi-organ failure.

Medication errors
Omitting, delaying or incorrectly administering prescribed medicines can have life-threatening consequences. Equally, failure to monitor for side-effects or dangerous drug interactions can cause serious harm.

Infection control failures
Poor hand hygiene, inadequate use of personal protective equipment or substandard cleaning regimes can permit the spread of MRSA, Clostridium Difficile and other healthcare-associated infections.

Personal hygiene and continence-care neglect
Residents require regular washing, skincare and prompt changing of soiled bedding or clothing. Neglect can lead to skin breakdown, incontinence-associated dermatitis and serious secondary infections.

Lack of appropriate care planning and review
Each resident should have an individualised care plan—covering pressure-relief, nutrition, falls risk and more—that is reviewed and updated as needs change. Failure to do so means harms are often neither anticipated nor prevented.

Emotional and social neglect
Isolation, lack of meaningful activity and unaddressed mental-health needs (such as unmanaged anxiety, depression or dementia symptoms) can exacerbate physical decline and diminish quality of life.

Environmental hazards
Unsafe premises—cluttered communal areas, poor lighting, broken call-bells, unsecured bedrails or faulty lifting equipment—contribute to trips, falls and injuries.

Failure to manage chronic conditions
Residents with diabetes, hypertension or other long-term illnesses need careful monitoring—such as regular blood-glucose checks or blood-pressure readings—and timely interventions to prevent complications like diabetic ulcers or stroke.

Investigating a Nursing-Home Negligence Claim

Our approach combines medical insight with legal rigour:

1. Comprehensive Records Acquisition
   We obtain care plans, daily nursing notes, risk assessments, incident reports and any correspondence with NHS services.
2. Expert Care-Home and Nursing Evidence
   We instruct specialists in geriatric nursing, dietetics, physiotherapy and infection control to determine whether staffing levels, training and record-keeping met regulatory standards (CQC, NMC and national guidelines).
3. Timeline Reconstruction
   Experts “time-travel” through the records to identify where and when care fell below accepted standards—for example, missed two-hourly repositioning or unrecorded fluid charts.
4. Establishing Breach, Causation and Damage
   We must show that the breach directly caused harm—for instance, that failure to reposition led to a stage 3 ulcer—and quantify resulting loss, including hospital treatment, ongoing nursing care and equipment needs.

Legal Elements and Time Limits

To succeed, a claimant must prove on the balance of probabilities that:

• The care home owed a duty of care the moment the resident occupied a bed.
• That duty was breached by acts or omissions falling below accepted nursing and regulatory standards.
• The breach caused the injury or loss claimed.
• The resident suffered quantifiable damage as a result.

Under the Limitation Act 1980, claims normally must be issued within three years of the date of injury or the date of knowledge. In cases where the injured party lacks capacity, an application can extend the limitation period—but early advice is vital to preserve evidence and obtain witness statements.

Why Instruct a Specialist Nursing-Home Negligence Solicitor?

Nursing-home claims raise unique challenges:

• Regulatory complexity
Care homes operate under CQC regulations, NMC codes and national standards. Navigating these frameworks alongside common law requires specialist expertise.

• Multi-disciplinary evidence
Effective claims depend on coordinated input from geriatric nurses, dietitians, physiotherapists, infection-control experts and, where appropriate, social-care specialists.

• Negotiating with corporate defendants
Large care-home chains deploy in-house legal teams and extensive insurance. Experience in holding them to account through pre-action protocols, CQC reports and, if necessary, court proceedings maximises compensation and deters future failings.

• Compassionate client care
I appreciate the emotional strain on families. My team explains every step in clear language and offers flexibility—whether that’s meeting at home, by phone, video call or in our London office.

Securing the Compensation You Deserve

Awards in successful claims can cover:

• Pain, suffering and loss of amenity
• Past and future healthcare costs, including hospital treatment, specialist nursing and equipment
• Care and assistance costs, whether through professional carers or family support
• Adaptations to home or residential accommodation
• Loss of independence and impact on quality of life

By forecasting a resident’s long-term needs accurately, we ensure compensation provides security and dignity for years to come.

Next Steps

If you believe a loved one has suffered due to negligent care in a nursing or care home, please contact me for a confidential, no-obligation discussion. I will:

• Listen to your experience and assess the merits of a claim
• Explain funding options, including conditional fee agreements
• Obtain and analyse all relevant records and instruct leading experts
• Pursue the full compensation your family needs and deserves