Andreea Palcu-Lape is a Senior Nurse Specialist and Expert Witness with extensive experience across surgical nursing, acute and chronic pain management, and trust-wide clinical governance and risk functions. Her practice is firmly positioned within liability, with particular strength in the investigation of clinical incidents, deterioration management and standards of care in complex hospital settings.

Her clinical background includes surgical ward nursing across urology, gynaecology, upper gastrointestinal and colorectal services, followed by specialist roles in acute and chronic pain management. She has held senior operational responsibility as Duty Nurse Manager, coordinating hospital-wide patient flow, escalation and response to clinical events, providing a detailed understanding of real-time decision-making, workload pressures and system dynamics within acute care environments.

Since 2022, Andreea has worked in a Quality and Risk Manager capacity within a large NHS organisation, leading investigations into clinical incidents, adverse events, near misses and complaints. Her approach is grounded in structured methodologies including Root Cause Analysis (RCA), SEIPS and PSIRF principles, with detailed review of clinical records, observation charts, medication documentation and escalation pathways. She evaluates care against NICE guidance, Royal College standards, local policy and the NMC Code to produce clear, evidence-based conclusions.

Her liability work focuses on systematic breach-of-duty analysis, comparing expected versus actual care and identifying omissions, failures in monitoring, and breakdowns in escalation. She has particular expertise in cases involving deterioration and escalation failures, including NEWS2, ABCDE and SBAR frameworks, as well as postoperative complications and opioid-related risk. Her analysis incorporates both clinical detail and contextual factors, distinguishing between individual error and wider organisational or systemic failure.

Andreea also has significant safeguarding experience, reviewing cases involving vulnerability, reduced capacity, self-neglect and failures to escalate concerns. Her work involves detailed chronology building, identification of risk indicators and assessment of compliance with statutory duties, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of both clinical care and safeguarding responsibilities.

Her leadership experience includes development of clinical policies, delivery of education programmes and implementation of quality improvement initiatives, particularly within pain management and safe opioid practice. This provides a strong foundation for expert opinion on standards of care, governance processes and risk management in acute and complex care settings.

Fully trained in the Civil Procedure Rules, Andreea provides independent expert evidence across claimant and defendant instructions. Her reports are structured, analytical and focused on delivering clear, reasoned opinions to assist the Court in determining matters of breach of duty, causation and clinical governance.

Specialisms

• Surgical nursing (urology, gynaecology, upper GI, colorectal)
• Acute and chronic pain management, including PCA and opioid safety
• Post-operative complication review and escalation failures
• Pressure ulcer and wound-care related governance review
• Falls risk assessment, post-fall investigation, and contributory factor analysis
• Safeguarding investigations involving vulnerability, capacity, self-neglect, and omissions in care
• Deterioration recognition and escalation (NEWS2, ABCDE, SBAR)
• Investigation of clinical incidents, complaints, near misses and adverse events (RCA, SEIPS, PSIRF)
• Analysis of clinical documentation, care plans, drug charts, and observation charts
• Identification of system-level contributory factors (workforce, processes, communication, environment)
• Clinical Governance, Quality & Risk Management
• Assessment of incomplete or inaccurate clinical observations
• Policy development and implementation of clinical standards
• Education and competency assessment in pain management, escalation, documentation, and risk awareness
• Duty Nurse Manager experience coordinating hospital-wide activity, escalation and safety flow

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Contact

Contact us at enquiries@harrison.associates