Guest Post
Falling ill or suffering from some kind of medical condition is one of the most unpleasant and stressful things which can befall an individual. There’s a reason why sayings along the lines of ‘As long as you’ve got your health, that’s all that counts’ have become such well-worn clichés and the reason, as anyone who has grappled with illness will attest, is that they contain a huge amount of truth.
In the case of many illnesses, the treatment required to deal with the condition will be painful, stressful or unpleasant in its own right, and a stay in hospital or regular trips to a clinic can be one of the most difficult things any given individual has to go through. The good news is that, nine times out of ten, the treatment which people receive at a hospital or clinic will be of the highest possible quality, combining state of the art equipment and procedures with medical practitioners who are dedicated and experienced. Occasionally, however, whether you’re attending an NHS practice or a private clinic, things can go wrong and, if you feel that the fault lies with negligent action on the part of those treating you, the effect can be devastating.
When we put ourselves in the care of medical practitioners we are placing a massive amount of trust and faith in them. On many occasions our life, quite literally, will be in their hands, and the feeling that this trust has been misplaced or actively abused can be deeply distressing. Over and above this psychological pain is the psychical effect of any negligence – namely a condition which isn’t spotted, hasn’t been dealt with or is actually made worse than it was to begin with. It is possible, however, to claim compensation for negligence of this kind, if it can be shown that the treatment you received fell below the standard you might reasonably expect. If this is the case, and the result has been on-going injury or suffering, then compensation can be claimed from any of the following:
Doctors.
Dentists.
Nurses.
Miscellaneous health care professionals such as pharmacists, anaesthetists etc.
Medical negligence is one of the most difficult and complex types of personal injury case to pursue. In many cases it can be months or even years between the event in itself and a case ever reaching court, since highly qualified experts have to examine the facts in question in order to determine whether the approach has been negligent, and whether this negligence has led to injury. The various different forms which medical negligence can take include the following:
Failing to notice a condition.
Mis-diagnosis.
A mistake during surgery.
Failing to warn about the dangers of a treatment.
Prescribing medication incorrectly.
The distress caused by medical negligence is a combination of the actual physical pain itself, allied to the psychological impact of knowing that people whom you trusted implicitly have let you down. Clearly, no amount of financial compensation is going to genuinely make up for this, but it will perform the dual purpose of replacing direct financial losses caused by the likes of not being able to work, whilst simultaneously creating a sense that justice has been done, and the unfortunate victim of compensation can begin rebuilding their life.
Whereas, in many compensation claims, the apportioning of blame can seem fairly simple, medical cases are complex and lengthy in a way which often puts people off pursuing them. The feeling that you are battling individually against a huge organisation like the NHS, or even a single clinic, can be daunting, and it’s for this reason that anyone who feels they may have fallen victim to medical negligence should approach a reputable firm of personal injury lawyers with the details of their case. Not only will they receive an honest appraisal of the strength of their claim, and the likelihood of winning compensation, but they’ll also gain access to experts who can build the strongest possible case. All of this, what’s more, will take place on a no win no fee basis, which means that you won’t have to provide any funds up front, and any compensation received will be yours to keep in total.