THE Rheumatology Department could face a clinical negligence class-action lawsuit from patients who recently discovered that they had been wrongly prescribed powerful drugs.
An audit of the department revealed that more than 170 patients did not meet the accepted criteria for the medication they had been given.
Law firm Viberts yesterday confirmed that it was acting for “multiple claimants” with regard to the “potential prescription error” – and that they may pursue a “potential class-action” lawsuit, if more people who were affected come forward.
In a post on the company website, Viberts described the recent rheumatology audit’s findings as “shocking” and “concerning”, explaining that they “highlight some serious issues within the rheumatology service, which has given rise to potential clinical negligence claims”.
Following a recommendation from the Royal College of Physicians, the Health Department conducted an audit of rheumatology patient records earlier this year.
The audit involved checking the past treatment and diagnosis of a group of 341 rheumatology patients – all of whom were prescribed a group of drugs known as biologics in the period before January 2022.
Biologics are a group of powerful drugs derived from natural sources such as human, animal, fungal or microbial cells. These drugs work by suppressing the immune system and disrupting the inflammation process that leads to joint pain.
However, they can make patients more susceptible to life-threatening infections.
Published in August, the preliminary findings of the audit of Rheumatology Department records said that more than half of the 341 local patients receiving biologic therapy did not meet the accepted criteria for starting this treatment.
At the time, Health Minister Karen Wilson said that it was “too early to determine whether anybody’s been harmed by [the inappropriate prescribing of biologic agents]”.
The preliminary findings of the audit also indicated that there was insufficient evidence in the patient case notes to confirm the diagnosis of around one-third of patients who were first diagnosed with a rheumatological condition in Jersey.
Deputy Wilson also admitted that these “serious problems” around the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatology patients may also extend into other areas of healthcare.
Rheumatology patients said they were left feeling “frightened” and “in the dark” due to “shambolic” communication from Health after the audit’s preliminary findings were made public in August.
Following the publication, it was confirmed that the two doctors at the centre of the review were “no longer undertaking clinical work”.
