Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018]

Click here for the Supreme Court Press Summary.

Mr Darnley was assaulted and hit on the head, so went to A&E in Croydon at 20:30.
The receptionist on duty told him falsely that despite him feeling ill and weak, he would likely have to wait for 4-5 hours before being seen to.
The real wait time for a head injury is likely to be 30 minutes.
Mr Darnley went home as he felt too unwell to wait and needed to sleep.
After 30 minutes at home, his sister rang an ambulance as he was getting distressed.
Ambulance took him back to the hospital and then was transferred for an operation at another hospital.
Mr Darnley suffered permanent brain damage as a result.
He is suing the NHS because had the receptionist told him a correct wait time, he would not have gone home and would have been in hospital earlier.

Could non-medical support staff of a hospital be treated like doctors in regards to duty of care?
When the receptionist gave a wrong wait time, was it so wrong as to breach her duty of care?
Was it foreseeable that Mr Darnley would leave after being told that the wait is so long?

Yes, the receptionist did have a duty of care and therefore the NHS was liable.
She breached her duty because the wait time she should have said was 30 minutes and Mr Darnley would have stayed.