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I’m pretty certain that there is no one on this Earth that relishes the thought of going to A+E. I’ve been a few of times, and it’s the same old story – they’re rushed off their feet, it takes hours just to be seen by a nurse, let alone a doctor, and they’ll probably going to discharge you and tell you that you’ll be absolutely fine and its nothing to worry about. Four days later you’re lying on an operating table because that “minor muscular injury” they convinced you that you’d be recovered in no time from is a complex fracture!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a go at NHS staff – I think we can all appreciate that the NHS is stretched so very thin, and the nursing staff and emergency care teams are, I imagine, fighting one heck of an uphill battle! It isn’t their fault that things are so bad in the economy that we’re all suffering at the mercy of an underfunded public health system. But irrelevant of whether you’re blaming our dear government or the powers that be in the NHS, one thing remains; standards of care cannot fall below what is expected.
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As Britons, we love to panic sometimes don’t we? We’re the type of society that rushes to our GP when we are feeling a little tense or under the weather. My understanding is that the NHS is encouraging people to make use of help lines and walk in centres. And let’s not even start on getting an appointment with your GP – if you’re lucky enough to get one before a full lunar cycle, you have a very well organised (or quiet) General Practitioner.

With the NHS in general being thin on the ground, it is a real concern that the standard of care that we would expect from our GP can fall. We get a lot of enquires for cases of misdiagnosis from GP’s or being prescribed the incorrect medication. Although we have had claims where it isn’t the GP who has provided the incorrect medication, it’s the pharmacist. Scary stuff… I recall I once went to my GP about a clicking in my back. I was asked to “Google back stretching exercises”. I was pretty angry to be honest.
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Cosmetic surgery is extremely common these days and not just with the rich and the famous. Many people now turn to the surgeons to achieve the body and face of their dreams. Unfortunately, the outcome can be far from the desired one with cosmetic surgery carrying with it so many inherent risks!

To start I shall briefly explain the regulation in place when it comes to these types of claims. Private clinics offering surgical treatments such as facelifts under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 must be registered with the Care Quality Commission. This ensures that the clinics offering these invasive procedures meet a set of essential requirements of safety and quality. One of the main comforts for Clients is that the Care Quality Commission inspects clinics at least once a year and have the powers to impose fines and simply shut clinics down for non-compliance!

Furthermore, surgical procedures are regulated activities and therefore ensure that only appropriately licensed medical professionals may carry out such procedures and if they are found to be unqualified they are liable for prosecution.
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Nowadays receiving a ‘pre-med’ offer in respect of compensation for your injuries is common.  What I mean by a ‘pre-med’ offer is a pre-medical offer – i.e. an offer made to you by the Defendant without medical evidence having been sought. 

The normal procedure in the claims process is to obtain medical evidence after the Defendant has admitted liability.  Medical evidence is important because it allows your injuries to be properly diagnosed and detailed so you can find out how long a medical expert believes you will be suffering for. The general rule is that the more severe and long lasting your injury is, the more it is worth. Naturally, having a medical report allows your claim to be properly valued by confirming this.
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We are The Injury Lawyers – an independent firm of specialist personal injury solicitors. We’re an actual law firm – we are not middlemen and we are not just a claims company that will sell your information on to a lawyer/solicitor; when you call us, it will be us that will deal with your claim.

Although we specialise in literally all areas of injury law (it’s all we do!), we are in fact specialist serious injury solicitors as well. Our Principal Solicitor has been specialising in serious injury claims for a number of years now, and his experience breeds throughout our entire practice – making us a firm choice for successful serious injury claims. We have, and have had, many serious injury claims (ranging from tens of thousands to millions of pounds), and we always get the best outcome.
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When we become ill, we expect that the medical care we receive will be of a high standard, and that those responsible for our treatment will do everything in their power to help us get over the illness. However, a report published in the Daily Mail shows how the level of care you receive depends on the area where you live.

The level of care you receive is shown through map diagrams. The map shows that the high spending areas of the NHS are found in regions which included Norfolk, Devon, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northumberland. The low spending areas included London, Durham and Derbyshire.
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When we feel ill or run down we visit our local GP, or depending on the seriousness of our illness, A&E. When we are looked over by our doctor we trust that they will be able to give us an initial diagnosis depending upon our symptoms. Hopefully, in most cases it wont be too serious and a prescription will be able to cure it.

In some unfortunate cases this is exactly what doctors have done. Patients have then returned on numerous visits still complaining of illness. In some cases, a patient visited their A&E centre 11 times before they were given a correct diagnosis of their illness. Unfortunately, in this case the patient was suffering from cancer and by the time medics diagnosed it, it was too late to cure the disease.
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Whenever you are seen by a medical practitioner, you should always make sure that the practitioner is aware of any drugs that you may be taking which could effect the treatment you are given. If this is not done, it could have devastating effects.

In one case reported in May 2010 by the Medical Protection Society, a 30-year old seemingly fit and healthy looking male was actually being treated with an immunosuppressive for his rheumatoid arthritis. Unrelated to this, he attended the A&E department of his local hospital with symptoms of an itchy rash and a general lack of energy.

The junior doctor who saw the patient recognised the rash as chicken pox and noted that he had not suffered with this common disease in his childhood. The doctor informed the patient of his diagnosis and advised him to stay at home and take paracetamol and use calamine lotion to reduce the itch. At no point did he check what prescription medications the patient may be taking.
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Any personal injury lawyer will tell you that a claimant has only 3 years to bring a claim to court. If it is not brought within this time, the claim is barred from being brought at court.

However, this time limit does not necessarily run from the time when the negligence claimed for actually occurred. The time actually runs from the date of the cause of the action or from the date of knowledge of the negligence, whichever is the later. In cases such as car crash claims, this distinction is not often important as those involved in the accident are usually aware of it as soon as it occurs. However, this can be a very important distinction in cases of medical negligence where you may be unaware of your doctor’s negligence for some time.
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Medical negligence legal cases can range from procedural errors causing minor suffering to very severe (sadly, even fatal) outcomes. It’s the reason why all health staff are required to be proficiently trained to prevent mistakes from occurring.

And you wouldn’t think that a comparatively straight forward dental procedure could lead to a £2.5m law suit …
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