Can I Claim Against The NHS For Medical Negligence?

There are various reasons why you may make medical negligence claims against the NHS, it may be a case of willful neglect in the NHS; suing the NHS for emotional distress, complaining about NHS treatment, making an NHS negligence death compensation claim, suing the NHS for misdiagnosis, making NHS injury at work compensation claims or other hospital compensation claims.

The consequences of medical negligence are obvious; they could be mild or serious allergic reactions due to incorrect medications, serious complications from a negligent surgery, a patient’s ill-health to worsening as a result of misdiagnosis, adverse impact on the patient’s quality of life, emotional trauma, reduced life expectancy or even death.

Whatever your negligence claims may be, we have specialist medical negligence claims NHS solicitors who have the expertise to help you make compensation claims against the NHS, give you free legal advice against the NHS and guide in the process of suing the NHS for medical negligence.

We have represented many individuals over the years and have secured hugely satisfying settlement amounts for them and we will certainly leave no stone unturned to ensure that you are well compensated. Not only that, by making claims, it is an opportunity for the NHS to make internal investigations and ensure that necessary measures are taken to see that such unfortunate occurrences are reduced to the barest minimum.

The following are forms of negligent treatment or substandard care that some of our clients have experienced while under the care of the NHS and if you or your loved one has suffered any of such as mentioned below as well as other similar ones, you may be entitled to make a claim. you can equally meet us for free consultation even if you are not sure if you were negligently treated.

They are;

• Cases of misdiagnosis- which includes wrong diagnosis, late diagnosis and completely missed diagnosis or failure to diagnose.
• Failing to carry out relevant tests to make accurate diagnosis
• Failing to make proper follow up on patients following the outcome of the tests carried out
• Failing to refer the patient to a specialist for expert medical attention
• Failing to commence treatment early enough (delayed treatment)
• Surgical errors including retained objects, anaesthesia complications and never events
• Drug prescription and administration errors
• Failing to warn the patient of the associated risks of a medical procedure and getting an informed consent before proceeding
• Failing to adequately care for mother during prenatal, natal and neonatal period leading to avoidable birth related injuries or complications

Suing the NHS is not an easy task as medical negligence claims can be very sensitive and dicey. This is why you need expert NHS solicitors to handle your claims.

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Medical Negligence In The NHS

Being one of the best healthcare facilities in the world, the government funded NHS is known to provide unrivalled health services, attending to the needs of millions of people the world over. The staff of the NHS are known to be well trained and skilled, arguably the best in their respective fields and with the huge investment into the NHS, the best can only be expected.

However, the NHS has been having issues of understaffing which means that the available staff are stretched beyond their carrying limits coupled with the large number of patients they have to attend to on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons why there are cases of medical negligence in the NHS.

A look at numbers published by the NHS Resolution shows that there were 10,678 NHS negligence claims filed against various NHS Trusts in 2018/19. That same year, there were 6943 successful claims against the NHS out of 11,625 settled claims. The number of claims for NHS gross negligence rose to 11,682 the following year and this is simply unavailable.

Looking at the statistics from each department, NHS claims against the department of emergency medicine was 1409 which was the highest accounting for 13% of total NHS compensation claims. This is followed by Orthopaedic surgery (1262 claims; 12%), Obstetrics (1076 claims; 10%) and General surgery (927 claims; 9%). Obstetrics negligence claims received £2.5 billion in settlement payouts in the year under review accounting for 50% of the total value of payouts.

Comparatively, as the number of claims have increased, so have settlement payouts increased. The NHS paid out £1.778 billion in 2018/19; the figure increased to £2.3billion the next year with £61.4 million spent on GP related negligence claims alone. As of March 2019, the NHS made further provisions for medical negligence claims increasing it by £6.4billion.

NHS Complaints Procedure Compensation

On several occasions, we have had to deal with potential clients who have issues with complaining about NHS treatment. Yes, you can make complaints only if you do not want to sue the NHS or make claims against the NHS for negligent treatment. This may be because you just want them or the staff directly responsible to accept that he or she was wrong and apologize to you; or express your dissatisfaction over the quality of care you or your loved one received in an NHS facility.

In 2018/2019 alone, there were 208,924 formal complaints made against different NHS departments; this shows that you are not alone in this. Although complaints do not yield compensation, they are useful in the sense that they help you to understand exactly what happened as well as gather information which may be useful should you decide to make negligence claims.

While making comments, please note the following:

• Your complaints should be made within 12months of the negligent treatment.
• Your complaints can be directed to the NHS Practice Manager or the NHS Commissioning Body.
• Your complaints should be clear and precise, stating your concerns and the staff involved.
• When making complaints on behalf of someone, then you should also show a proof that you are the next of kin or authorized to write on their behalf

The NHS PALS can assist you with guidelines on how to write your letter, you can also find out where you can see the nearest NHS PALS office on their website.

It is important that you know that medical negligence claims have a limitation period within which claims must be made and making complaints does not pause this time. Therefore, it is important that you make your complaints early enough and conclude everything about it before making a claim.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

The next stage of complaints if you are not satisfied with the way your complaints were handled by the NHS is to write to the Parliamentary And Health Service Ombudsman. They are an independent body that investigates unresolved negligence related complaints after the local resolution phase.

Guidelines on how to write to the PHSO can be found on their website. Also, It is important for you to provide documents of your initial complaints to the NHS.

If after these two stages you are not yet satisfied or you feel that you have gotten enough evidence to make a claim, then you can consider making a claim against the NHS.

Can I Sue The NHS?

Of course, you can sue the NHS for medical malpractice or clinical negligence. Where you or your loved one has suffered avoidable pain, trauma, emotional distress or other complications as a result of poor treatment, then yes you can sue the NHS for medical malpractice.

While taking legal actions against the NHS, you should be able to prove your stance that you receive substandard care. How do you do this? You do this by establishing the four parts of medical negligence which are;

• Duty- This is where you establish that the NHS owed you a duty of care
• Deviation- Here you show that the NHS deviated from fulfilling their duty of care towards you by subjecting you to substandard and negligent treatment.
• Direct Causation- This is a very important aspect of proving your claims as you will have to establish how their negligence caused you the complications, trauma, pain or injury you are suffering. There has to be a direct link between the negligent treatment and the harm suffered.
• Damages – This is another important area in proving your claims as you have to state how you have been impacted and the damages you have suffered as a result of the injury suffered. This could be psychological, financial, social or otherwise.

NO WIN NO FEE

How Do I Make A Claim Against The NHS?

Having seen the areas of negligence that need to be proven to make a claim, we will look out how to make the claim proper.

• First and foremost, you need to contact your specialist NHS solicitors. At MND, we have competent lawyers, experts in NHS medical negligence claims. You can be rest assured that you will be assigned the best legal professionals to prosecute your claims. We will listen to your story, make a careful evaluation of your claim and provide you with the best legal representation you need to get a favorable compensation.
• The next thing is to fund your claim. Here we have a strict No Win No Fee policy which protects you from paying before we can start representing you. 
• Gather your evidence. Certain documents will be needed to prove your claims and these include;
• Detailed statements of all events as they transpired
• Medical records, reports, test and scan results
• Witness statements from friends or family
• Evidence of financial losses; (past, current and future estimated losses)
• Photographs to show showing the severity of the injury suffered
• Additionally, we will call upon an independent medical expert in the field of interest to examine you and give a detailed report on the severity of your injuries.

We can also assist you make these documents available, wherever you may be having challenges.

• After gathering evidence, we will write a letter of claim to the defendants as we aim to establish liability
• Register claims in court (this does not mean that you are taking the NHS to court or that you are will have to appear in a law court, it is only a standard procedure)
• Negotiate the compensation fee and payment after liability is admitted

Medical Negligence NHS Payouts

The amount you will receive as your NHS compensation payout for your medical negligence claims depends on a number of factors as it applies to your case. It is therefore not fixed. The NHS says that the average medical negligence payout in the UK is £50,000. However, compensation awards can fall anywhere between thousands of pounds and millions of pounds.

The following factors will affect your medical negligence NHS payouts;

• The type of injury suffered
• The location and severity of that injury
• Future prognosis
• Emotional trauma suffered
• Costs of medical treatments</span
• Travel costs to and from medical appointments
• Costs of rehabilitation and therapy
• Costs of purchasing assistive devices, mobility aids, etc.
• Costs of housing adjustments

Using our NHS claims compensation calculator, we will be able to give you a realist idea of what your settlement payout will be.

No Win No Fee Against NHS

We offer No Win No Fee medical negligence claims services on all our NHS claims. You therefore have no reason to put off making claims due to exorbitant legal fees as you do not have to pay us a dime to make your NHS compensation claims. 

Even if the claims were not successful in the end, you will not have to pay us a penny as well. Only after a successful claim shall we deduct no more than 25% of your compensation payout as “success fee”.