A High Court judge has recently ruled that a woman died prematurely because of a simple typing error – a GP’s referral letter was addressed to her at Number 16 instead of Number 1b.
Obviously a sad & tragic story, but also one that is very indicative of our age – that the letter should fail to get delivered to the woman or returned to the surgery. I deduce however that the woman lived in south London, where the population is more than usually transient & people & posties are much less likely to know the neighbours & to ensure the letter gets to its intended destination.
This case is also interesting because the judge accepted evidence based on ‘sound research’ that, had her condition been diagnosed a year earlier she would have had a 92% chance of surviving for 10 years. Compensation for her orphaned son is still to be decided, but the actuarial calculations no doubt offer much scope for argument between the lawyers.
