Hospital Negligence Compensation
Working towards a better solution

Hospitals, especially the accident and emergency departments, are prone to making mistakes due to the nature of the medical conditions they have to deal with. Often it is impossible to discern what ails a particular patient and the medical professionals have to make judgement calls as to the best treatment rather than following set procedures. Generally if this is the case the doctor, surgeon, nurse or physician cannot be classed as negligent or careless. For a health care worker to be held as acting neglectfully or careless they must have done something that, generally speaking, no other medical professional would have done in that situation. This is usually decided by a group of that individual's peers or other experts in that field of medicine.

Many of us comment on how we "can never read our G.P.'s handwriting", but still trust is placed in the pharmacist to translate correctly. The truth of the matter is that the majority of medicines prescribed and diagnoses given are done in the doctor's handwriting and this genuinely does cause problems. These days as more and more surgeries and hospitals become computerised, both prescriptions and notes are far more legible.

One aspect often misunderstood by those claiming to be compensated is that the hospital employee's rights are just as important as the patient's. If a patient is abusive themselves then the hospital has every right to refuse to treat that individual. To claim that a hospital has been negligent the staff at that hospital must have been in a position to offer treatment but withheld it for reasons that were not the patient's fault. To claim malpractice on the other hand, you must have actually received treatment that should not have been given to you or received a correct treatment incorrectly. "Near misses", however shocking, are still not eligible for compensation as no harm actually befell the patient. It is scary when your pharmacist notices dangerously high doses of strong medication and queries the issuing doctor but compensation is meant as an aid to the harmed individual, not the punish the offending party. You can still make a complaint when such occurs.

Unfortunately no matter how quickly medical science is advancing the majority of diseases and ailments are still under-researched. Despite the best efforts of those working for the NHS, they cannot treat every condition and therefore cannot be held accountable for inattention when no treatments are available.


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