The UK healthcare system is one of the finest and most respected in the world. However, mistakes can occur in almost any medical setting, including clinics and hospitals and, when things go wrong with healthcare, it can have very devastating and far reaching effects. It can severely affect the physical, financial and emotional state of the victim.
The good news is that you can make a claim for negligence if a healthcare professional has breached their care of duty by providing substandard care to a patient, which has caused injury. However, you must be able to determine whether or not
medical negligence has occurred before making a claim.
WHEN HAS MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE OCCURRED?
Medical Negligence can be complex, so knowing if you have suffered negligent care can be hard sometimes. Did the doctor breach his/her duty of care or was it one of those inevitable things? Let us start by defining what medical negligence really is. Medical Negligence occurs when a healthcare professional fails to provide appropriate standard of care, causing illness or injury to the patient. This may mean causing injury or illness due to substandard care, or worsening a pre-existing medical condition.
Medical negligence can occur in several different forms, which can include, but not limited to:
1. Misdiagnosis:
This occurs when a healthcare provider diagnosis a particular condition, when the patient has a different one. Misdiagnosis could also occur when the medical professional fails to diagnose a patient’s condition, since this could delay the correct diagnosis and treatment of a patient. Contact to our
Misdiagnosis Claims Solicitors for make a claims.
2. Incorrect Treatment:
Sometimes, misdiagnosis can cause a healthcare provider to administer a wrong drug, prescription or treatment. When incorrect treatment is administered, it not only fails to provide relief for the patient’s condition, but can worsen the illness or injury in some cases.
3. Prescription Error
A doctor or nurse can be responsible for the type, quantity, and mode of administration of a medication for his/her patient. If they make a mistake about the type of drug to be prescribed, dosage to be administered, or the mode of administration, the patient may be able to pursue claim for negligence. Prescription error could also occur if bad handwriting causes the patient harm. Luckily, band handwriting problems are increasingly rare as most healthcare providers now use computer systems.
4. Surgical Errors
Mistakes are sometimes made during a surgical procedure or operation. Surgery is meant to provide relief to any pain a patient is experiencing, but the opposite can happen sometimes, and mistakes can be made by a medical professional. These mistakes may either mean that the initial problem isn’t fixed or that the pre-existing condition has been worsened.
Surgical Errors could include performing an operation on the wrong part of the body, damaging certain organs or forgetting surgical equipment inside the patient’s body.
WHAT NEXT?
If you believe you have been a victim of medical negligence and are considering pursuing a claim for compensation, then you should consider the following important elements that impact medical negligence.
1. Breach of Duty: Your
medical negligence solicitors can help you determine whether your experience meets the criteria for negligent care. To achieve this, they must prove that you received substandard care, and that this care has directly resulted in or contributed to an injury, or worsened an existing injury.
2. Time Limits: Strict time limits apply when it comes to pursuing a medical negligence claim. Generally, claimants have three years from the date of the injury or the date of knowledge, to make a claim. Though this time limit usually begins from the date the negligent act occurred, it may sometimes be obvious at a much later time after the negligence.There are also exceptions to the three-year time limit. If the medical negligence affects a child under 18 or a mentally disabled patient, the time limit begins when the child turns 18 and when the patient recovers from the disability respectively. If this is a permanent disability, family members may help such one make a claim for compensation.
3. Compensation: A range of factors determine the amount of compensation you can be awarded. These factors can include the extent of illness or injury, the impact it has had on your life, the impact it would have on your future, and any expenses that you have incurred as a result of the illness or injury.
