Rulings and Routes to bring a Medical Negligence Claim
Any kind of healthcare or medical treatment which leads to undue injuries to patients is what brings out medical negligence claims UK. The routes and rulings for pursuing a formal complaint against a medical malpractice are not the same as of persona injury claims.
However, as in personal injury claims the medical negligence claim law requires you to fulfillthe four basic checks:
- That the alleged doctor had a duty of healthcare towards the patient,
- The doctor breached his medical duty in some way,
- Losses or injuries have been acquired,
- And a link must be proved between this negligence and the injuries sustained by the patient under that care.
All these four criteria need to exist for a valid medical negligence claim. If claimant fails in proving these criteria on ‘balance of probabilities’, the claim is invalidated.
The thing most distinct about medical negligence claims UK is the way claimants have to establish the negligence or ‘breach of duty’. In case of roadside accidents, to establish whether the driver was carelessly driving is relatively easy e.g. breaking traffic rules or driving off beam when accident occurred. However, for a medical negligence claim, it is more challenging to prove doctor’s negligence. Usually, Bo lam test is used to this end according to which medical negligence is said to have occurred if treatment provided to the claimant is not up to the healthcare standards that are expected from medical professionals in that particular specialty.
Below is a step by step method for pursuing medical negligence claims UK:
Step 1:
If you suspect having suffered from medical negligence, prior to initiating legal process you must make a formal complaint to your physician or National Health Service.And if you do not get any satisfactory response from the opposite party, an impartial investigation of your medical negligence claim can be conducted by ‘Commission for Healthcare Audit and Improvement’.
Though the investigation conducted by this commission does not award the claimant with any award, the review reports might be quite helpful in future legal process.
Step 2:
After failing in resolving your case out of court, you would end up making medical negligence claims in court. Malpractice solicitors would be great help for you in this phase. These solicitors will thoroughly review your case in light of your medical reports. If some data is missing, your solicitor will collect it on your behalf. Having considered all required medical information, the solicitor will make formal claim in court.
The reports and opinion from relevant medical consultants are sought after so as to support the medical negligence claims UK. The court gives high weightage to these expert reports for validating or invalidating the cases. In case expert reports are supportive of the claim, compensation amount is also decided in