British grandmother overjoyed by go-ahead to sue over hospital superbug MRSA

A great-grandmother was "overjoyed" after being given the go-ahead to bring a test case against the National Health Service for allegedly infecting her with the MRSA superbug. Elizabeth Miller, 71, contracted MRSA while recovering from a heart operation at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 2001. Her legal team argues that a failure to implement the hospital's hand hygiene policy led to her infection.

Although patients have sued hospitals for failing to treat the superbug, no cases have been brought against the health service for giving it to patients. If successful, Mrs Miller's case could lead to scores of others.

Speaking after the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled that a full hearing into the claim should be held, Mrs Miller said: "I really am overjoyed that we have won the first battle and I just feel it has taken a long, long time. The main thing is that the hospitals get cleaned up. It has ruined my life. I spend most of my life sitting in a chair, and depression is one of the worst things it has done. I just feel my life will never be the same again. But if the case can prevent it happening to someone else, that will be a bonus."

Mrs Miller, from Kilsyth, near Glasgow, is seeking damages of 30,000 pounds from NHS Greater Glasgow. She says that she can no longer play with her great-grandchildren because she is too unwell. Her legal team claims that she contracted the bug because of a series of errors that led to staff failing to wash their hands properly. The problems were understood to include faulty taps and sinks and a lack of soap and paper towels. According to court papers lodged on her behalf: "If the hospital's hand hygiene policy had been implemented, enforced and adhered to, Mrs Miller would not have become infected with MRSA."

Lawyers for the NHS board called for the legal action to be dismissed. They claim that the infection was identified and treated as early as possible and that a nasal swab taken from Mrs Miller did not rule out the possibility that she had MRSA before being admitted.

However, in a written ruling yesterday, Judge Lady Clark said that the case should proceed to a full hearing. She said that there were still some factual matters to be determined. A date has not been fixed yet for the full hearing.

Mrs Miller's solicitor, Cameron Fyfe, said that he had 160 other clients who intended to pursue similar claims if the case was successful. In some cases patients had died or lost limbs, and those claims could run into six figures, he suggested. Mr Fyfe added: "This is a big step forward. If at this final hearing we can prove that the hospital was to blame, Elizabeth will be compensated and it will open the door to hundreds of claims."

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Australia: Your regulators will protect you -- in their usual somnolent fashion

One of the NSW's busiest skin care specialists has been accused of running a bizarre surgery for seven years in which patients were relentlessly pursued, verbally abused, threatened with AVOs and told never to come back. Dr David Lindsay froze off more than 250 sun spots from one patient in a single session, cut a lesion from a patient's leg without anaesthetic and treated another patient for a year without telling him he had skin cancer on his cheek, it is alleged.

Ten years after he first came to their attention, the Health Care Complaints Commission has asked the Medical Tribunal to strike Dr Lindsay off the medical register "to protect the public." The commission alleges Dr Lindsay, 42, suffers from a paranoid personality disorder. His behaviour could be triggered by minor comments, including a patient saying they had been kept waiting for a long time, said Ms Christine Adamson, counsel for the HCCC.

She said it was made difficult for patients to complain because his mother Tallulah Glynne worked as his receptionist at the Mid City Skin Cancer Centre in George St, Sydney. In one outburst, Dr Lindsay allegedly told a patient she had a suspicious mole on her body but he wouldn't tell her where "feigning that he had forgotten where it was". "I don't want to see you anyway, get out," he allegedly told another patient who said she had to leave after waiting 30 minutes.

Two patients had private prosecutions brought against them under the Inclosed Land Protection Act after they complained. One patient who commented to the receptionist that the doctor lacked personal skills was abused because of nationality and "told to return to England".

In a 57-page complaint, the HCCC claims he is guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct, improper or unethical conduct and that he threatened and intimidated patients and other doctors who complained. In 2004, he left a message on the answering machine of Judge Ken Taylor, then an acting HCCC commissioner, saying the judge was incompetent and the HCCC corrupt.

The complaints involve 25 patients and three doctors and begin in January 2002. He was first reported to the Medical Board in 1998 when the anaesthetist suggested he see a psychiatrist. The doctor, who has been suspended pending the outcome of the decision, denies he suffers a personality disorder. In a failed application to have one of the tribunal members dismissed due to his perceived links to one of the patients, Dr Lindsay said he was the "most investigated doctor" in both Australia and the US. "I'm not a bad person. I'm as good as I can be. I don't have a personality problem," he said.

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