Substandard Medical Care and When to Make a Claim
A patient who suffers due to substandard or negligent medical care may be entitled to claim compensation for the consequences of that substandard care.
What is substandard medical care?
Substandard medical care is care which does not meet an acceptable or appropriate level. It is a failure to carry out an action in the way that most medical professionals would think was appropriate.
Examples of substandard care could include the following:
- A failure to carry out an examination or risk assessment when it would normally be regarded as appropriate
- A failure to recognise important symptoms
- A failure to make a referral for specialist care or tests when that would normally be regarded as necessary
- A failure to undertake appropriately-timed monitoring of a patient, whether post-operative or newly admitted
- A failure to provide red flag advice or arrange crucial safety-netting
- A failure to adhere to guidelines
These are just a few examples. The range of actions undertaken every day within the NHS is so vast that substandard care can occur in a variety of ways.
The important thing is where an action, or failure to act, by a medical professional causes a patient to suffer a worse outcome than should have been the case with acceptable care.
When to make a claim
It may be possible to make a claim when it is clear both that substandard or negligent care has taken place and that the negligent care has caused the patient to suffer unnecessarily.
The patient may suffer from unnecessary and severe, disabling symptoms which would be addressed in a successful claim.
Bear in mind that claims for medical negligence are associated with a three-year deadline from the date of the alleged negligence and that an investigation into your care needs to be carried out well before that deadline.
How to make a claim
The first step is to talk to a specialist medical negligence solicitor, describing what has occurred, why you believe that you have been the victim of substandard care and what its impact has been.
If appropriate, your solicitor will obtain copies of your medical records and engage the services of the best medical experts to investigate the quality of your care, identifying any evidence of substandard care.
Speak to a legal specialist
Glynns Solicitors is a dedicated medical negligence legal practice with a team of experienced lawyers and many, many years’ experience of these 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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