Your health or the health of your loved ones is undoubtedly one of your prime concerns. Whether you’re simply visiting your GP for a check-up or undergoing some serious surgery, everybody comes into contact with medical professionals at some time or another. Millions of people put their trust in these professionals to provide them with the care or medication they need to feel better.
Unfortunately this isn’t always the case. Like in any profession mistakes and accidents can happen and these incidents can cause a lifelong problem or injury in some instances. There’s nothing to suggest that all accidents are preventable but they do usually come as a result of what’s known as medical or clinical negligence through carelessness or even incompetence.
The Effects of Medical Negligence
Medical negligence can ruin somebody’s life and completely change the way they have to live. This is why huge medical negligence compensation claims are often reported where individual patients receive cash pay-outs to compensate for the suffering they have gone through and may still be living with.
Whilst many people suffering as a result of medical negligence do get the compensation they deserve this isn’t the full story. Many victims of these types of accident or injury do not know they can make a claim. Often they don’t think their injury or illness is severe enough to deserve any amount of compensation. However, any treatment which you could consider below a reasonable standard of care that a patient expects could be considered worth claiming for.
Claiming for Medical Negligence
The first place you should turn when you’re considering claiming for a case of medical negligence is to find yourself a specialist solicitor. Specialist medical solicitors aren’t difficult to find but you need to be sure they’re definitely qualified for the job. There are various bodies and accreditations which are relevant to this specific area of the law. You should pick a solicitor based on their track record and success from previous cases, most will advertise clearly on their websites with information and testimonials from previous clients and you can use this as the base for deciding if they’re the solicitor for you.
Proving you’ve suffered due to medical negligence is very difficult which is why you need a qualified and experienced solicitor. The first thing they’ll do is compare your treatment to what is considered the standard and see if it falls below this. This isn’t enough on its own but it is the beginning and they will then need to go on to prove the ill- effects you suffered are evidenced throughout documentation. This usually comes in the form of medical reports, psychiatric records and anything else relevant.
The process of putting the case together isn’t something which should trouble you or stress you out in any way as you’ve hired a professional to do it for you. They should provide you with regular updates and let you know when you need to attend medical appointments from their chosen specialists. The process can be daunting but once it begins you know you’ve got professional support on your side and in most cases it’s no win no free as the solicitor is confident in their abilities to that degree.
About the author :
Tom Brown is an experienced personal injury solicitor from Rugby. He specialises in medical negligence and birth injury cases.
