Hysteroscopy compensation: Are the new Hysteroscopy guidelines enough?
This is not a new topic — in fact it’s one that should have been resolved a significant time ago — yet women in the UK are continuing to suffer unnecessary, and unnecessarily painful, hysteroscopies.
A hysteroscopy is a procedure used to look inside the uterus. It isn’t an uncommon procedure and is recommended in a variety of circumstances, including where the patient is suffering from very heavy periods, bleeding after menopause, problems getting pregnant, has suspected cancer in this area or for the removal of a coil; to name just a few of the reasons why this procedure is carried out.
It is well documented that for many woman a hysteroscopy produces an almost intolerable level of pain, and yet the general advice for pain relief on the NHS website is simply to take ibuprofen or paracetamol 1 hour before the procedure.
It is due to these continuing reports of severe pain from the procedure, along with a lack of patients being offered any significant pain relief, that the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists has published an update to the guidelines on out patient hysteroscopies.
The updates to the guidelines
The updated guidance recommends women are provided with information about the procedure of outpatient hysteroscopy, including the benefits and risks, possible pain relief options as well as alternative care settings, prior to their clinic appointment. It also states that women should be able to choose to reschedule an appointment, once they have received all of the information to allow more time for decision making.
Additionally, since the last set of guidelines were published, the scope has been widened to include information about effective pain relief options, informed consent, training, standards of care provision and clinical documentation.
It remains to be seen what these guidelines will do in practice, and whether they will be enough to stop the all-too frequent issues with hysteroscopies from occurring in the future,
Help and support
Partner in our clinical negligence team, Caroline Webber-Brown, was previously involved with the hysteroscopy action group; a group of UK patients campaigning for more information to be available to women to allow them to make decisions about treatment both before and during medical procedures. For more information on this group and the support they offer see the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy website.
If you have had a Hysteroscopy which you believe was unnecessary or, where appropriate pain relief was not provided, then you may have a legal claim and be entitled to compensation.
Caroline has particular experience in gynaecological cases and has recently settled a case where her client underwent an unnecessary hysteroscopy.
Contact Caroline and her team for a free review of your case and to find out if you may have a hysteroscopy compensation claim.
