Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB)
Nursing care home - functions of public nature The patient died while in a nursing care home operated by the first defendant. The claimant sought damages for clinical negligence and false imprisonment, and under s7 HRA 1998. The High Court struck out the HRA claim (and alternatively would have granted the first defendant summary judgment) as the first defendant was not a public authority or exercising a public function. The House of Lords decision in YL, that a private care home was not performing functions of a public nature had been overidden by Parliament in certain circumstances (by s145 Health and Social Care Act 2008 and now s73 Care Act 2014) but those circumstances did not apply in this case: the "absence of any special statutory power" (since this patient had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty without DOLS authorisation) was an "important factor" in that decision! The Article 2 claim would have been struck out in any event as the required "very exceptional circumstances" required before the State could become responsible for the acts and omissions of health care providers were not present.
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