Can I Claim Compensation From Accident and Emergency?
If a medical professional has provided substandard or negligent care, whether they are in hospital, the GP surgery or, indeed, in Accident and Emergency, a patient is legally entitled to claim compensation.
Responses in Accident and Emergency
Getting the correct response from a medical professional in Accident and Emergency is often absolutely crucial to the patient's outcome.
- A failure to carry out a thorough examination
- A failure to recognise or suspect the significance of the patient's symptoms
- A failure to seek a second opinion
- A failure to refer a patient for specialist investigation
- A failure to arrange necessary tests
- A failure to provide appropriate red flag advice
- Making an incorrect diagnosis or providing inappropriate treatment or medication
Making a claim for compensation
Inevitably a patient attends Accident and Emergency because a significant concern about their health. Sometimes, their condition may be a medical emergency and a failure to recognise the significance of their symptoms or a delay in providing the correct care may be life-changing.
Where such an outcome occurs and the medical professionals are found to have acted negligence, it may be possible to make a claim for compensation.
A successful claim will take account of the patient's pain and suffering as well as their financial losses, insofar as they have been a consequence of the negligent care in Accident and Emergency.
As appropriate, a successful claim would include any loss of earnings, both past and future, if the patient's ability to work has been compromised.
It would also include any costs of care or equipment or specialist treatment where this has been necessitated by the impact of their negligent care.
The need for specialist legal advice
Compensation claims for medical negligence are, not surprisingly, often very complex.
In order to initiate a claim, it is necessary for the patient's medical care to be scrutinised by the best medical experts for signs of negligence in the medical handling of the patient's condition and symptoms.
In order to carry this out, a specialist solicitor will need to obtain copies of the patient's medical records.
If it is felt that not only had there been an act of substandard care, but that it had had a negative impact on the patient's outcome it will then be necessary to calculate the value of the claim.
This is also a complex and intricate process, identifying the various ways in which the patient's health, well-being and quality of life have been impacted.
It will take account of loss of income where this is appropriate plus the costs of any care, equipment or treatment necessitated by the impact of the negligence.
Speak to a legal specialist
Glynns Solicitors is a dedicated medical negligence legal practice with a team of experienced solicitors and a history of success in complex claims.
Contact us today to talk to a solicitor, free of charge, about the possibility of making a claim.
We can offer No Win No Fee medical negligence funding which we will discuss with you during your free initial telephone discussion.
Please call us free on 0800 234 3300 or complete our Online Enquiry Form.
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