Medical Negligence Can I Claim

Many thousands of us visit our GPs and hospitals every year and in the vast majority of cases, the visit is uneventful, our diagnosis and treatment are successful and we recover from our illness or condition. For some people however that visit, diagnosis or treatment can end in disaster with an unexpected outcome caused by some carelessness on the part of the GP, or hospital.

If the treatment has gone wrong, a doctor is required to advise you of that under the rules of the General Medical Council (GMC).

If the injury or in the worse cases death has been caused or contributed to by the actions of medical or indeed dental staff, then you or the member of your family may be entitled to compensation.

What do I need to prove in order to make a claim?

In order to be able to make a claim, you have to show that the individual or organisation concerned owed you a duty of care and that they have breached that duty of care in the course of the provision of diagnosis or treatment.

Claims for medical or clinical negligence are very different from claims arising out of a road accident or at work for example. Those sorts of cases are relatively straightforward; it is easier to show that someone has been at fault whereas clinical negligence claims can be very involved and complicated. In order to succeed in such a claim, you have to show that it was more probable than not that the errors in your diagnosis or treatment were not those that a competent doctor would have made and that the error or errors (sometimes one error leads to yet another and there is then a catalogue of errors) caused or materially contributed to the injury that you complain of.

Recent examples of Medical Negligence cases

Recent examples of medical negligence include an award of £92,000 made to a lady who had suffered injury to her bile duct whilst undergoing surgery for removal of her gall bladder. It was found that the treating surgeon caused the injury in an uncomplicated procedure and that a competent clinician would have not done so and to compound matters, he should have been alerted to the need to monitor for renal function and failed to require that monitoring, leading to the patient suffering acute renal and then multiple organ failure.

In another case however, the claimant failed to prove that the negligence of an obstetrician in failing to carry out another scan had caused her brain damage. So whilst there was negligence in failing to consider another scan, the claimant was not able to prove that the outcome would have been different had the scan been performed.

Time Limits

You also have to make the claim within three years of the date of the alleged negligence (or when you became aware of it). Children who have received injury have three years from the date that they achieve their majority. There are exceptions to these basic rules which you should discuss with your solicitor.

Summary of what you have to show to make a claim

So in order to make a claim for medical negligence you have to show that there has been some breach in the duty of care owed to you (or a member of your family) and also that that has led to different outcome than would otherwise have been the case.

Making a Medical Negligence Compensation Claim

It is important to realise that medical negligence claims can be very complicated and you should seek specialist legal advice at the earliest opportunity. Your solicitor will need time to advise you, to seek access to your medical records and where appropriate get medical evidence.