Medical Negligence is a term that gets thrown about a lot, but few people know what it exactly means and are therefore less informed when it comes to knowing if they have a legitimate claim or not. In this blog we hope to help you out by explaining what Medical Negligence is and how you can go about claiming if you think you have suffered due to a medical negligence incident.
So what is Medical Negligence?
Medical Negligence, also known as Clinical Negligence, is when a doctor, nurse, surgeon, dentist, anaesthetist, physiotherapist or any other clinical professional has failed to ensure that their patient has received the correct medical help in the proper manner. Medical professionals have a duty of care to a patient – if we can show that they have failed to uphold this duty, there may be a claim to answer for.
So if you have been caused harm as a result of any medical professional not giving you the proper help you deserved, you could have a claim for medical negligence. Here are some examples of potential medical negligence claims:
- A surgical error that lead to unnecessary pain or scarring
- Complication or side effects caused by incorrect medication or treatment (this includes anaesthetic)
- Misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis that leads to complications or injury
- A failure to refer to a specialist or for treatment
How do I know if I have a claim?
There are some very specific criteria that need to be fulfilled for you to have a medical negligence claim. The best way to know if you have a claim is to look at the following points to see if you these apply to your situation.
- The medical professional owed you a duty of care and was negligent by failing to uphold it – directly causing harm to you
- The doctor / nurse / clinician acted in a way that another professional would not have reasonably acted – i.e. an avoidable mistake was made
- The actions taken by the medical professional unduly caused harm to you
How can I prove this?
It’s easy to imagine why a lot of these points would be hard to prove, which is why a lot of law firms won’t offer a no win no fee guarantee because medical negligence claims are often hard cases to win. But at The Injury Lawyers we offer a Genuine No Win No Fee guarantee because we believe in our ability as specialist injury lawyers to succeed in any case we accept.
If you would like to find out whether you have a claim please give The Injury Lawyers a call on 0800 634 7575 and our team of legal experts will be happy to talk you through it and hopefully get you the compensation you deserve!
