Katie Ayres

Clinical Negligence

Katie is regularly instructed by the NHSR in clinical negligence claims. Often such claims will have been foreshadowed in an Inquest as Katie has particular expertise in clinical negligence which results in a death. Katie also has extensive experience of cases involving the non-diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders.

Examples of recent work include:

• Representing an AMHP employed by a local authority who failed to arrange for a doctor to assess the claimant (who had just been arrested and was spending the night in a police cell) who went on to kill three people whilst, found at trial, to have been insane.
• Representing a doctor employed by an NHS Trust who failed to section the claimant prior to her committing suicide.
• Representing a GP in a multi-defendant claim against him for delayed diagnosis of cancer. The claim involved particularly difficult issues of causation and analysis of the merits of pathological vs radiological staging of tumours.
• Representing an NHS Trust in relation to the death of a woman who developed Stage 4 pressure ulcers and sepsis. The claim involved interesting arguments around non-delegable duties.
• Representing a Private Hospital in relation to the death of an unborn baby. The claim involved detailed analysis of electrocardiography and cardiotocography and expert evidence on the interpretation of the same.
• Representing an NHS Trust for failing on multiple occasions to diagnose coronary artery disease, which could have been treated by coronary revascularisation, which lead to the Claimant suffering a heart attack and dying.
• Representing an NHS Trust in relation to an investigation into hygiene standards due to higher than average post-surgical levels of infection.

Selected Cases

News

• Court of Appeal decides that an application to set aside default judgment is an application for relief from sanction to which Denton applies.
• Katie Ayres appears in Court of Appeal

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Articles

• Court of Appeal decides that an application to set aside default judgment is an application for relief from sanction to which Denton applies.
• Katie Ayres considers the Court of Appeal’s recent judgment in AB v Worcestershire County Council & Anor (Rev1) [2023] EWCA Civ 529.

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