Army
Jones v Ministry of Defence [2020] EWHC 1603 (QB), [2020] All ER (D) 123 (Jun)
In a clinical negligence claim against the Ministry of Defence, the claimant had not established that his fatigue (which was the effective cause of his discharge from the Army) had been caused by the delay in diagnosis of a certain medical status, rather than the consequences that would have flowed from that status in any event, nor had he established that the persistent fatigue could be explained by a psychiatric or psychological reaction to the consequences of the delay in diagnosis. However, the Queen’s Bench Division, having previously refused to grant an anonymity order, and following a remote hearing, held that the claimant was entitled to an award of general damages to compensate for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity endured, not simply during the ten months in which he had been wrongly left undiagnosed, but the months following, in which his weakened immune system had led to two incidences of hospitalisation. The court held that the appropriate level of general damages was £20,000,
