Legal claims after the pandemic

10 situations in which you will be entitled to compensation or compensation from administrations

After a tragedy like the one suffered by the Covid19 pandemic, there are many damages, both patrimonial and moral, for which compensation can be requested by the administrations. The Patient Ombudsman has published a decalogue of the situations that can be claimed at the judicial level and from Balms Abogados we want to explain what the procedures would be to follow, knowing that an individualised study of each situation is always necessary:

• ELDERLY ABANDONED IN RESIDENCES 
• VICTIMS OF ERRORS AND NEGLIGENCE
• PROTOCOL ERRORS WITH COVID-19
• BAD MANAGED WAITING LIST
• PATRIMONIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MANAGEMENT
• ABSENCE OF WORKER PROTECTIONS 
• CLAIM OF COVID-19 AS A WORK ACCIDENT
• DENIAL OF SICK LEAVE
• CLAIMS AGAINST FUNERALS 
• LACK OF INFORMATION

The consequences derived from these situations are subject to a criminal complaint, in those cases in which the deceased have not received the required help and relief. The complaint could be raised due to the omission of the relief duty, injuries and even reckless homicide, plus the corresponding civil compensation.

Cases of unattended or neglected patients are civilly liable: patients discharged prematurely, delayed surgical interventions, or inadequate treatments that have led to an aggravation of the disease with consequences and damage to their health.

Those situations in which a person has died due to a wrong diagnosis by Covid-19, lack of a respirator, or have not been admitted to an ICU are criminally reportable.

Likewise, deaths caused by lack of a respirator or not having been transferred to the ICU are criminally reportable, not due to lack of resources, but due to poor management of the waiting list within the emergency department. It also includes cases in which, although treatment in a public centre is not possible, they have not been referred to a private hospital centre (including the largest residences).

Those people who have suffered damage or harm to their person and/or property as a result of the pandemic, have the right to sue the Central Government, or the Autonomous Communities, through administrative contentious channels. The property claim against the administration is based on the lack of initiative and negligence of the administration in not having acted preventively in the face of warnings from the EU and the WHO.

Those workers, military and officials who have suffered injuries or have died due to the manifest violation of the Law on Prevention of Occupational Risks, and in the absence of organizational and protective measures, both collective and individual.

This situation would also occur when some sectors return to work, despite not having sufficient protection measures to carry out their tasks. In these situations, both the administration that does not provide the means to its officials, as well as the employer that does not guarantee the health of its workers, are exposed, unnecessarily exposing them to the virus without due guarantees.

Claims against the Social Security of the recognition of the disease as an accident at work in cases contracted during the provision of their daily work, or in sectors such as officials and the military, with extensive exposure to the virus.

Denial of sick leave to patients with risk factors who have been harmed as a result of said denial will also be claimable.

Actions against funeral companies for breach of contract and poor provision of their services. And here there are several types of errors: the identification of the deceased, undue delays in the performance of the contracted benefits, and abuses in the collection of funeral services.

Finally, the lack of information to patients or their families about the diagnoses, alternative treatments and possible risks of those infected by Covid-19 may also be claimable.