Has medical negligence affected your life? You could be eligible to seek compensation through a hospital negligence claim. Receiving substandard medical treatment in a hospital can have a physical, psychological, and financial toll. Medical negligence claims focus on many areas of negligence, such as misdiagnosis, surgical errors, and childbirth injuries.
Whether the substandard care happened as an inpatient, outpatient, on a ward, in surgery or when you sought treatment at A&E, you could be owed compensation. Furthermore, you can seek compensation from an NHS hospital or a private healthcare provider.
Our specialist solicitors are experts in medical negligence claims with decades of combined experience. Plus, our medical negligence solicitors offer a No Win No Fee service, meaning you won’t need to pay for their work on your claim unless you are awarded compensation. Find out all you need to know about No Win No Fee arrangements and the clinical negligence legal process in our guide.
Claiming against a hospital for clinical negligence can be stressful, but the team at Medical Negligence Solicitors UK CO is here to help. Use one of the below contact methods to get in touch with one of our advisors, who will let you know if your claim is eligible with the help of a solicitor from our panel.
- Call on 03301230546
- Fill out our claim online form and a friendly advisor will get back to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Am I Able To Make A Hospital Negligence Claim?
- Can I Claim Against An NHS Hospital?
- How Much Compensation For Hospital Negligence Can I Get?
- What Are The Common Examples Of Hospital Negligence Claims?
- How Can I Make A Hospital Negligence Claim?
- How Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Hospital Negligence Solicitors Could Help
- Learn More
Am I Able To Make A Hospital Negligence Claim?
To make a hospital negligence claim, you must have suffered avoidable or unnecessary harm due to a breached duty of care. All medical and healthcare professionals owe patients a duty of care, meaning they must provide care to the expected standard. This includes:
- Ordering the relevant tests where necessary.
- Listening to the concerns and symptoms of patients.
- Offering correct advice about medication and conditions.
- Checking for allergies or interactions when prescribing new medication.
Unavoidable or unnecessary harm can be defined as physical, psychological, or both. Our advisors can give you more information about the eligibility criteria for a medical negligence compensation claim and whether you could claim.
Can I Claim Against An NHS Hospital?
Yes, clinical negligence claims can be made against an NHS hospital. All claims are dealt with by NHS Resolution, a separate body of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Your solicitor will inform the NHS Trust that the hospital is part of that you are suing for medical negligence. NHS Resolution will then deal with your claim. If your claim is successful, NHS Resolution will pay your clinical negligence compensation settlement.
Can I Claim Against A Private Hospital?
Just as you can claim against an NHS hospital, you can also make a medical negligence claim against a private hospital. The majority of private hospitals have liability insurance to cover claims. When claiming for medical negligence in private healthcare, you claim directly against the hospital where the negligence occurred.
How Much Compensation For Hospital Negligence Can I Get?
How much compensation you could be awarded for a successful hospital negligence claim will vary from how much is awarded to other successful claimants. This is due to the different factors affecting each claim. For example, one patient may have suffered the loss of their great toe due to a failure to diagnose diabetes. This then kept them off work for 12 weeks. However, another patient may have suffered the same amputation, plus severe kidney damage requiring weekly dialysis, preventing them from returning to work at all. So, as you can see, even similar failure to diagnose diabetes claims can be awarded different amounts.
Compensation Guidelines
To help assign a value to the unnecessary physical and mental harm you have suffered, those who calculate medical negligence claims may refer to a document titled the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document contains compensation guides for a range of different types of harm and injuries that claimants could suffer. We’ve provided a few figures in the table below taken from the JCG, except for the first figure. However, the table is intended only as a guide and does not represent the specifics of your hospital negligence claim.
| Type of harm | Severity | Information | Compensation guideline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple instances of severe harm plus related costs | Very severe | Settlements could compensation for more than 1 type of harm and related expenses, including loss of earnings and care costs. | Up to or over £1 million |
| Paralysis | Tetraplegia | Awards consider whether the patient is in pain, disability awareness, life expectancy and whether they've retained power over their speech, sight and hearing. | £396,140 to £493,000 |
| Brain Damage | Moderate (i) | The claimant has suffered a moderate to severe intellectual deficit, personality change, impacts on sight, speech and senses along with a significant risk of epilepsy. | £183,190 to £267,340 |
| Bladder and Bowels | Double Incontinence | The claimant has loss the natural functioning of their bowels and bladder and suffers other medical complications. | Up to £224,790 |
| Female Reproductive System | Infertility | The injured party is infertile due to injury or disease, along with sexual dysfunction, severe depression and anxiety, pain and scarring. For example, due to a failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy. | £140,210 to £207,260 |
| Arm Amputation | Loss of One Arm (ii) | The claimant's arm needed amputation above the elbow. | £133,810 to £159,770 |
| Foot Injuries | Amputation of One Foot | The claimant has loss the ankle joint. | £102,470 to £133,810 |
| Lung Disease | Cancer | Generally in an older person, lung cancer causes severe pain and impairment of function as well as their quality of life. | £85,460 to £118,790 |
| Kidney | Significant | There is a significant risk of future urinary tract infections, or other total loss of natural kidney function. | Up to £78,080 |
| Spleen | Loss | There's a continuing risk of internal infection, disorders and immune system damage. | £25,380 to £32,090 |
Our advisors can answer any queries you may have about compensation for hospital negligence.
How Would My Compensation Be Calculated?
Medical negligence compensation is compensated via general damages and special damages.
The figures in the table above are general damages. General damages cover:
- Pain and suffering.
- Psychological damage (including depression and anxiety).
- How the negligence has affected your life. For example, if you can no longer participate in a favourite hobby or activity, such as knitting, because your fingers were amputated as a result of a delay in diagnosing meningitis. This is referred to as ‘loss of anemity’.
Special damages compensate you for financial losses. You will need evidence such as bank statements, payslips, and receipts to prove these financial losses. Some examples of what you can claim special damages for include:
- Loss of earnings if you had to leave work temporarily or permanently.
- Additional medical treatment, such as surgeries.
- Medical aids – for example, a wheelchair.
- Care at home.
- Domestic support. For example, hiring a gardener because you can no longer pull up weeds due to negligence.
A member of our friendly advisory team can provide you with a detailed estimate of how much hospital negligence compensation you might be able to claim.
What Are The Common Examples Of Hospital Negligence Claims?
This section looks at a few of the more common examples of clinical negligence. In any of these situations, you might have a valid hospital negligence claim. However, negligence can occur in a variety of different ways, so you may not read about your exact circumstances here. You can always get in touch with an advisor to discuss what happened to you and find out if you have good grounds to seek hospital negligence compensation.
Medication Errors
A medical professional should always check for allergies or for interactions when prescribing a new medication. You can find an example of a breached duty of care relating to a medication error below.
- A patient attends the Accident & Emergency department for severe food poisoning. They are given medication to stop the vomiting, but their medical record clearly shows that they are allergic to this medication. They end up having a severe allergic reaction to the medicine that causes lasting damage and requires them to stay in hospital for much longer.
Delayed Treatment
Delayed treatment often occurs when a patient’s symptoms are dismissed or misdiagnosed, for example:
- A patient goes to the hospital after hurting their wrist in a football game. The hospital diagnoses the injury as a sprain when it is actually a fracture, causing the patient to suffer permanent damage to their wrist due to the break not being correctly treated until months later.
Misdiagnosis
As mentioned, a patient being misdiagnosed can lead to delayed treatment. Moreover, a patient may receive the wrong treatment for their condition, causing more issues and potentially allowing the actual condition to worsen. An example of misdiagnosis would be:
- A patient presents with symptoms of endometriosis and is admitted to hospital for severe stomach pain relating to this. However, after a day, the patient is sent home with an incorrect diagnosis of IBS. The patient is left with ongoing severe pain and emotional distress due to the misdiagnosis. They have also taken medication for a condition they do not have, which has caused discomfort with their digestion.
Surgical Errors
You can claim for all types of surgical errors, including cosmetic surgery errors. An example of when a surgical negligence claim could be made is:
-
- A patient undergoes necessary surgery for a stomach issue, but the surgeon makes a mistake. The patient is left with permanent and painful digestive damage due to the error.
Childbirth Injuries
An example of a cause to make a birth injury or birth trauma claim is:
- During labour, a baby begins to suffer from a lack of oxygen that is not picked up on by the medical professionals monitoring the birth. The birth is not accelerated, and the baby is born with severe brain damage due to the lack of oxygen it received. This leads to life-long disabilities that require full-time care from professionals as well as a parent needing to leave the workplace.
If you think you may have suffered hospital negligence but the above situations did not occur, don’t hesitate to still get in contact. Our advisors can let you know if you can make a medical negligence claim.
How Can I Make A Hospital Negligence Claim?
To make a hospital negligence claim, you will need evidence and also to begin the claim within 3 years, both of which you can find more about here.
Evidence
Evidence is crucial in clinical negligence cases, as negligence can be difficult to prove. We recommend the following kinds:
- All test results or results from scans.
- Prescription forms or packaging.
- Your complete medical records to show treatment, diagnoses, and allergies.
- The contact details of any witnesses to your treatment.
- Correspondence between you and the hospital.
- Any diary entries from your trip to the hospital.
Time Limits
Per the Limitation Act 1980, you have a time limit of 3 years to pursue a hospital negligence claim. This date begins either:
- On the date the negligence occurred.
- On the date you became aware that negligence occurred.
This time limit has 2 main exceptions.
Firstly, if the patient is under 18. Minors cannot claim themselves, but they can be represented by a litigation friend, who will communicate with the solicitor for them. A minor can also wait until they turn 18 to pursue the claim themselves, without a litigation friend.
Secondly, patients without the mental capacity to manage a claim, either due to a pre-existing condition or negligence, will not be subject to a time restriction unless this capacity is recovered. Should this occur, then the time limit will start on that date. However, a litigation friend can be appointed to act for them at any time during this suspension.
Our advisors can let you know whether you are within the time limit for medical negligence claims or about gathering evidence.
How Our No Win No Fee Hospital Negligence Solicitors Could Help
As well as winning compensation for clients who have experienced substandard care and treatment at a hospital, our panel of medical negligence solicitors will:
- Explain legal terms.
- Keep up communication between parties.
- Offer advice on compensation settlements and other relevant matters.
- Handle court proceedings, if necessary.
As mentioned, all our solicitors take on claims on a No Win No Fee basis via a Conditional Fee Agreement. Making a claim this way means:
- Your solicitor will not collect a fee upfront or as the claim is ongoing for their work.
- A success fee is only collected if you receive compensation following a successful claim.
- This fee is a percentage that your solicitor will take before sending you the compensation.
- The percentage is not only legally limited but will be agreed upon before your solicitor starts work on your claim.
- You do not pay this fee if you do not claim compensation successfully.
Contact Our Advisors
As well as our clinical negligence solicitors, our advisors are highly experienced and equipped to help with any questions or concerns you may have regarding medical negligence claims. Pick your preferred contact method below to get started.
- Call on 03301230546
- Start your claim online
Learn More
We’ve linked a few of our guides below that you may find useful.
- Find out how NHS compensation payouts are calculated.
- See how to claim for gallbladder surgery negligence.
- Discover our guide on sepsis misdiagnosis claims.
We’ve also included some links to external sources that contain information related to this guide.
- Read the annual statistics of claims from the past few years via RESOLUTION.NHS.UK.
- Check the quality of care in a hospital via CQC.ORG.UK.
- See the duties of medical professionals registered with the General Medical Council via GMC-UK.ORG.
Thank you for reading our guide on making a hospital negligence claim. Get in touch if you have anymore questions or would like to get a claim started.