Experts in Hospital Injury Negligence Claims

Hospital Injury Negligence Claims on a No Win, No Fee Basis

A hospital is somewhere you go to recover from injury, not gain an injury. For some patients, however, that is what sadly happens. If you believe that you or a person close to you came to harm through hospital negligence, you have options. Get in touch with The Medical Negligence Experts to see if you have grounds to make a claim.

The NHS is the envy of health systems around the world. But it is not infallible, and hospital injuries are not singular to one particular department. While busy, pressure environments like Accident & Emergency may be more prone to hospital negligence purely for the high volume of patients they see and treat. In short, you can experience it staying on a ward, during or after an operation, or through incorrect diagnosis.

When acceptable standards of care fall then people can suffer unnecessarily. The Medical Negligence Experts can help them successfully claim compensation for hospital injuries – for a private or NHS facility. We work with the UK’s leading personal injury solicitors who specialise in medical negligence. Moreover, they’re sensitive to your needs and understand the worry and suffering you may be experiencing.

What is Hospital Injury Claims Negligence?

The majority of medical professionals who take their duty towards their patients very seriously. The high standard of service they provide is what their patients need to recover from their illness or injury. There are times when even people or processes can let patients down; mistakes happen, and injuries occur.

Types of Hospital Injury Claims

Common types of hospital negligence that can lead to injury compensation claims include:

• Incorrect diagnosis may happen in Accident and Emergency. For example, they assess you but deem it doesn’t require further treatment or given the incorrect treatment. Moreover, it could result from a specialist misinterpreting your symptoms.
• There are many symptoms which are present in various conditions – pain, shortness of breath, and fever are just a few. A doctor’s role when diagnosing a condition is to look for the illness which fits the symptoms. In contrast to trying to make the symptoms fit what they believe to be the cause.
• Misdiagnosis can happen from even the most capable doctor without them being clinically negligent. To prove negligent misdiagnosis, you must show another doctor would expect to diagnose an illness and prescribe the right treatment.
• Making mistakes during operation can include errors with the quantity or administration of an anaesthetic. Or operating on the wrong part of the body, and leaving foreign objects inside a person. All of these can have potentially fatal consequences.
• Poor post-operative care can also be grounds for claiming compensation or a delay in recovery. The actual surgery may go well, but poor nursing care afterwards could lead to conditions like sepsis.

More Examples of Hospital Injury Claims

• Failure to obtain informed consent. Even with modern advancements, surgery is still inherently risky and may not always have the hoped-for results. It is the surgeon’s role to ensure their patient is aware of all potential outcomes and risks before they undergo surgery.
• Hospital-acquired infections. MRSA and C-Difficile are two of the most common types of hospital-acquired infection. In a healthy person, they can have little to no ill effect, but when these viruses attack someone whose immune system is already weak, they can wreak devastating consequences. Hospitals, in effect, must have robust processes in place to help avoid the spread of these infections. But when procedures fall off and a patient falls ill, then staff may be found to have been negligent in their care.

Also, giving the wrong medication either by the dispensing pharmacist in the hospital or the nursing staff on the ward.

• If a patient receives the incorrect medication but doesn’t suffer any ill effect or delay in their recovery. Accordingly, a compensation claim would not be valid as no injury occurs.
• It would, however, be grounds for a formal complaint to the hospital.

What Does Compensation Include?

The payment of compensation can cover:

Physical pain and suffering

This section can also include if your recovery from your first illness finds delay due to negligence. An example would be if you went into the hospital for a routine operation and expect to be back at work within a fortnight. Unfortunately, due to negligent post-operative care, you developed an infection which made you very ill and set your recovery time back three weeks.

Psychological damage

Compensation damages only occur for psychological trauma on the diagnosis of a recognised psychiatric condition. Illnesses like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can happen in certain instances where a patient has woken up partway through an operation. Because they did not have the correct dose of anaesthetic.

Another example is Anaesthesia Awareness, which is where a patient appears to be unconscious during surgery but can feel pressure and possibly hear what is going on around them but are unable to make this known.

The cost of ongoing medical treatment or nursing care

Compensation may also go out to a victim for reasonable private treatment.

Loss of Earnings

Lost wages due to being unable to work while you recover from the effects of your negligent care. In extreme cases, this can also include payment for predicted future earnings if your injury leaves you unable to return to work. Compensation may cover the cost of your partner or close friend has had to reduce their working hours to care for and support you.

Adapting your life

Any equipment or adaptations you need in your home to accommodate a permanent injury caused by negligence. For example, if you lose mobility and need to adjust your living space or install a stairlift to help you at home.

NHS Complaint vs NHS Compensation

If your injury occurred at an NHS hospital, you have the right to request a thorough investigation of your complaint. You should also receive information about the outcome and any subsequent action the hospital may take, such as changing their working practice.

You can escalate it to the industry ombudsman if you are unsatisfied with the management of your complaint. Perhaps your accident was due to unlawful treatment. For example, receiving treatment from someone who falsifies their qualifications. If that were the case, you can also request a judicial review.

It is not necessary to go through the NHS’ formal complaints system before you start a compensation claim. However, maybe beneficial if you do as their investigation will give a good understanding of whether your injury was due to negligence and you are therefore eligible to claim compensation.

The Degree of Risk

Every hospital procedure carries with it some degree of risk, though. Moreover, it is possible for injury or illness to occur even with every reasonable precaution to avoid. For a compensation claim to be valid, a person or organisation needs to be responsible otherwise who will pay the damages?

While raising an NHS complaint can help give you answers and the reassurance that no one else need suffer in the way you did, it can take several months to resolve. As there is a strict statutory limit of three years in which to submit a request for compensation, that may be time you don’t want to waste. It is possible to file a complaint and begin a compensation claim at the same time.

Even if the outcome of the investigation into your complaint is that your care was negligent, the NHS complaint process cannot pay you compensation. Likewise, a successful compensation claim will not necessarily lead to any changes in hospital practice or discipline of the person responsible. The two actions – complaint and compensation request – have different aims and outcomes.

The NHS has its own body, called the NHS Litigation Authority, for managing payment requests.

We do recommend that you instruct a No Win No Fee solicitor to take on your case and challenge the NHS. Going alone can result in costly legal fees.

No Win No Fee* Hospital Injury Compensation Claims

We believe that expert legal representation and advice should be available to everyone who needs it, not only those who can afford it. We make this accessible with our No Win No Fee* agreement that does away with upfront legal costs and removes the financial risk associated with claiming compensation.

It also gives you the security of knowing that your personal injury solicitor will work their hardest to ensure you receive maximum compensation as they will not get paid unless they achieve a successful outcome for you.

How Can We Help?

Lawyers at The Medical Negligence Experts have extensive experience in representing clients who have received an injury in the hospital and who are seeking compensation. We understand that you may still be recovering both physically and emotionally and that starting the legal process for damages may be the furthest thing from your mind – something to put off until you’re feeling better.

You have three years from the date of your injury (or its link to bad treatment) to start a compensation claim. The only exception is if you were under 18 at the date of the incident when you have until your 21st birthday.

It is also possible to act as a “litigation friend” for someone:

• under the age of 18, or
• legally unable to manage their financial affairs due to a mental disability.

There are strict legal timelines for submitting a compensation claim to court. Therefore, we recommend you contact us as early as possible to improve the chances of success. For a claim to be valid, you need to prove you receive negligent care and it causes your injury. The onus is on the claimant to provide this evidence, which is harder to obtain as time passes.

You can make a free, no-obligation enquiry by contacting us today.

About Us

The Medical Negligence Experts achieve for our clients with high standards of customer service. The right compensation represents the ability for you to move beyond your injury, so why would you expect any less from us?

You’ll receive a capable medical negligence solicitor who will support and represent you for the duration of your claim. You will have their email address and phone number, so you know you will be able to share information or obtain answers from a person who understands your claim and will not make you repeat details.

Making successful compensation claims for medical negligence may be our business, but that does not mean we forget it can be confusing and stressful for those who have never had to make a claim or be involved with the legal system before.

Obtaining compensation for medical negligence can be a lengthy process, but you can start it today. Contact The Medical Negligence Experts now.