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A medical negligence claim is when a patient makes a compensation claim against their healthcare provider. It occurs when the treatment provided by your healthcare provider has fallen below acceptable standards and has caused you injury. This injury can be physical, emotional, or psychological.
It’s also possible to make a medical negligence claim against a hospital for misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of an illness – for example, a doctor failed to detect cancer in its early stages and so didn’t provide appropriate treatment.
You may have heard the term “clinical negligence” – precisely the same as “medical negligence.”
Making a clinical negligence claim can be complicated because there are many things to consider, including whether you’re within the time limit for making your claim.
Common Types of Medical Negligence Claims
When it comes to medical malpractice, not all claims are created equal. Depending on what happened, there are various types of claims. Here are some examples:
Birth Injuries
Claims for birth injuries usually relate to a failure in care during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. Examples include mismanagement of labor leading to forceps delivery, improper administration of drugs during childbirth causing brain damage, infant death, physical injury to mother or baby, and failed sterilizations resulting in unwanted pregnancies.
Cosmetic Surgery Claims
Cosmetic surgery covers breast enlargements, facelifts, and nose jobs (rhinoplasty). It is claimed that medical negligence occurs when the patient is dissatisfied with the results or when an error is made during surgery, leading to harm. This includes situations where there is a fault with the technique used for the procedure, such as using too large implants for breast enlargement and causing pain and discomfort.
GP Negligence
There are many scenarios where people may wish to bring a claim against their GP due to negligent treatment or advice. These may include failure to diagnose conditions such as cancer, unnecessary tests, and incorrect treatment resulting in other illnesses.
Other types of medical negligence include:
- Dental Injury Claims
- Fatal Accident Claims
- Hospital Infection Claims
- Medical Malpractice Claims
- Misdiagnosis & Failure to Diagnose
- Orthopedic Injury Claims
- Surgical Error Claims.
How to Determine Medical Negligence
Medical negligence claims are not just limited to the hospital. Sometimes, medical negligence can occur when you are at home, a GP is treating you, or visiting a nursing home or a care home facility. Medical negligence can even happen in the dentist’s office or optometrist. Medical negligence lawyer says there are several things that you have to look for to determine if you have a case of medical negligence:
- Did the healthcare professional misdiagnose your condition?
- Did they treat it incorrectly?
- Did they fail to diagnose your condition promptly?
- Did they prescribe the wrong medication? Were the dosages incorrect?
- Did a faulty medical device hurt you?
All this will help you, and your attorney will determine if you have a case or not. It will also be helpful when trying to recover compensation.
Proving Medical Negligence?
Medical negligence claims can be complex, so it’s essential to understand how they work to help you recover compensation.
To establish medical malpractice, you must demonstrate that your doctor’s actions fell below the standard of care. In other words, you must demonstrate that another competent doctor would not have done what yours did in the same situation.
To establish that your doctor’s actions were negligent, you must first obtain an expert opinion from another doctor who will testify in court on your behalf. This expert witness will usually be in the same field as your doctor and will have treated similar conditions or injuries.
It is not enough for an expert witness to say that they think your doctor was negligent in treating you; they must explain why they believe this to be true and point to specific standards or practices violated by your doctor’s conduct.
Calculating Damage for Medical Negligence?
Much time is spent on the causation issues and the degree of impairment. One of the most challenging issues in the calculation of damages. For example, a child who suffers brain damage at birth may live for many decades. There are many issues to consider if they can work in calculating lost earnings. These include:
- The length of time that they would have worked
- The likelihood that they would have worked
- The type of work that they would have done
- Any salary increases over the years
- Their life expectancy
The lost earnings depend not just on the level of impairment and their likely career path but also on some assumptions about their life expectancy. The life expectancy for a person who has suffered brain damage at birth will be significantly less than for someone who has not suffered such an impairment.
Is There a Time Limit for Filing a Claim?
If you have been harmed by a medical professional and are considering making a medical malpractice claim, you need to act quickly to recover compensation. This is because there is a time limit to make a claim.
The time limit varies depending on the circumstances of your case and where you are located. In some parts of the country, the time limit is as little as six months from the date of medical negligence or malpractice, while in others, it can be up to 18 months.
To get an accurate idea of how much time you have, we recommend seeking legal advice from a specialist medical negligence lawyer.
When Can You Contact an Attorney?
You can get a medical malpractice attorney if the incident in question meets three criteria:
The doctor had a duty of care to you. It’s simple to demonstrate: Doctors owe patients a duty of care in all circumstances.
The doctor breached that duty of care. If a doctor fails to diagnose a condition or causes more harm than good while treating you, they have breached their duty of care.
The breach of care harmed you. For example, if the misdiagnosis resulted in serious health problems and expenses or lost time from work because of your injuries from treatment.
A legal action for medical negligence is a long, arduous and expensive process. So as a patient/claimant, you must be armed with all the facts and information. You must also have realistic expectations about what can be claimed by the doctor.
The compensation amount depends on several factors, including the seriousness of your injury and the extent of your losses. Your lawyer can advise you regarding this.
