NHS Negligence

NHS Negligence

NHS medical negligence happens when a health care professional breaches their duty of care meaning their actions have fell short of acceptable professional standards. Health care professionals don’t just extend to surgeons, doctors and nurses, these include physiotherapists, radiologists, dieticians and even hospital porters.  It isn’t a question of what ‘could’ have been done but more what ‘should’ have been done! 

There are many ways that medical negligence can happen;

• an illness misdiagnosed, the diagnosis being so different to the reality of the patients problem resulting in incorrect treatment or no treatment given at all
• a surgical mistake such as injuring a nerve, anaesthesia error, an incision in the wrong place, leaving a piece of surgical equipment inside a patient, operating on the wrong body part
• needle related injuries whereby the skin has been punctured by a hypodermic syringe. Besides a possible skin reaction there is the possibility of transferring infected blood therefore at risk of blood viruses the result of which could be catastrophic
• prescription errors involving the wrong dose due to an erroneous calculation, wrong preparation due to poor communication/poor handwriting, wrong duration, combining medication that shouldn’t be taken at the same time
• no informed consent given (consent in full knowledge of the facts) but the surgery/treatment goes ahead anyway and the patient is harmed
• contracting a hospital infection for example MRSA. It is important to note that it is not always possible for hospitals to eliminate MRSA completely but should the infection take hold causing further illness and wasn’t treated properly then there could be cause for a claim

Entitlement to compensation will be determined by establishing a failure of the medical professional(s) to fulfil their duty to you as a patient and determining causation, that is the lack of care or substandard care has caused additional pain, damage, injury. Often those affected are apprehensive and already suffering stress and frustration but a claim will attempt to return you back to the quality of life you were in beforehand.  Whilst that isn’t always possible a medical negligence claim may be a way to make life more comfortable.

We place our trust in our health service and no-one expects to leave feeling worse than when we went to them for help. By making a claim for negligence against them not only are you helping yourself and your loved ones but you are highlighting mistakes/failings therefore encouraging the NHS to prevent such things occurring again. 

Contact us today for free, no obligation advice regarding your NHS negligence claim – either by calling us free on 0800 122 3130, or by requesting a free call back, whereby one of our team will contact you at a time of your choice, to discuss your situation.

We’re here to help – contact us today.