In the financial period 2020/21, the NHS reported some 12,629 clinical claims made against them. This was up from 5,426 in 2006/07, highlighting an increase of 133 per cent over the course of 14 years.
Despite this increase, it remains quite difficult to bring a medical negligence claim and prove that a particular healthcare provider was at least partially responsible for your subsequent injuries or illnesses.
In this post, we’ll look at how you can go about proving suspected medical negligence while appraising the potential role of no win, no fee medical negligence solicitors in this process.
How to Identify Medical Negligence
The term ‘medical negligence’ refers to instances where a qualified healthcare practitioner delivers a standard of care or treatment that’s below what should be expected.
This failure to uphold the so-called ‘duty of care’ that binds healthcare and similar professionals must also result directly in a subsequent injury or condition — whether this impairs your physical or cognitive well-being or impacts negatively on your ability to earn.
Identifying such negligence depends on your precise interaction with healthcare providers. For example, a doctor may have missed the symptoms of a particular ailment causing it to develop and become significantly worse over time or misdiagnosed the condition and prescribed incorrect drugs.
Other examples of medical negligence are more overt, such as surgical errors that result in a serious anaesthetic error or the decision to operate on the wrong body part.
How to Prove Medical Negligence
As we can see, there are many types of medical negligence, from surgical and prescription errors to examples of misdiagnosis.
Regardless, the process of proving medical negligence remains unchanged, as there are numerous predetermined steps that you’ll have to follow from a legal perspective. These are as follows:
- Demonstrate a doctor-patient relationship or a healthcare provider at the time of your injury or illness
- Prove that the doctor or healthcare provider subsequently failed in their duty of care towards you as the patient
- Showcase that this breach directly contributed to physical and mental harm and your capacity to earn
- Provide evidence of injury and your medical records, in order to demonstrate that the doctor or healthcare provider is fully or partially responsible for your ailments.
These steps equate to a mountain of paperwork, due diligence and evidence collation, while the entire process can be particularly challenging in complex cases (such as missed diagnoses) that are inherently difficult to prove.
This is why you’ll need to work alongside a qualified medical negligence solicitor. Firstly, this type of provider can help to determine whether you have a viable case, usually following a free consultation.
From here, they’ll strive to liaise with medical practitioners and collate the necessary evidence as required, while communicating openly with you and ensuring that you’re kept up to speed.
As the process draws to a close, your legal representatives will help to negotiate a financial settlement and ensure that your claim achieves a satisfactory outcome.
