Know the Requirements and Compensation for Medical Negligence Claims

Take a look at the two common questions raised by people who intends to file for medical negligence claims in the United Kingdom.

1. What are the requirements for medical negligence claims in the UK?

A person who wants to bring a claim needs to meet the law requirements for personal injury. First, it is essential to prove the existence of duty of care. Healthcare providers and healthcare professionals are responsible in rendering a standard of care. Both inpatient and outpatient facilities are covered in the claim. Inpatient facilities include hospitals, and nursing homes. Outpatient facilities include doctor’s offices, dental clinics and medical laboratories. Healthcare professionals such as doctors, surgeons, physiotherapists, dentists and nurses are responsible to render a standard of care. Second, a breach of duty needs to be proven. A healthcare professional who failed to render a standard of care such as a misdiagnosis, wrong treatment and incorrect prescription of drugs has breached a duty of care. Third, causation between the breach of duty and injury needs to be established. It is necessary to prove that a malpractice is the cause of the injury. Lastly, an injury needs to be proven. Injury can be physical or psychological. A medical report should be submitted to establish the validity of the claim.

2. What are the kinds of compensation that can be granted to a claimant?

Medical negligence claims compensates for sufferings endured by the claimant. General and Special damages can be granted to the claimant. The first one compensates for the non-quantifiable aspect while the second is a compensation for quantifiable aspect of the claim.

General damages pertain to the physical and psychological pain endued by an individual. It includes loss of enjoyment of life, loss of reputation, disfigurement, impairment, loss of use, loss of consortium and loss of income opportunity. On other hand, Special damages compensates for the economic loss experienced by a person after the incident. It includes loss of income, medical and care costs, travel expenses and other expenses. Both actual and estimated losses of earnings are included. It takes into account the pay increases, promotion prospects and other benefits of the individual. Medical and care costs such as medical expenses, hospital charges, treatment fees,  surgical support and care provided by other people are included. Travel expenses like trips to the hospitals, attending appointment with an expert and other journeys related to the injury are covered. Miscellaneous expenses such as additional utility costs, items purchased because of the injury and other out-of-pocket expenses are also included.

An expert lawyer provides legal assistance about the compensation. It is recommended to seek legal advice from the expert.

Singing during Surgery

Humans have an incredible ability to do two things at the same time. Actually, a person can do more than two activities simultaneously. How about singing while listening to a favorite song from an IPod, jogging and at the same time sight seeing? Oh well, it’s normal and anyone can do it. But here’s an amazing thing, a man is singing during a brain surgery. What?! How can that be? Read on and find out.

The musician-actor has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease. A brain-stimulation surgery was carried out to help him deal with hand and eye tremors.  The surgeons implanted an electrode emitter to the affected part of the man’s brain. They woke up the patient during surgery to ensure that the electrode emitter was implanted correctly in the right part. Surprisingly, the musician-actor strummed his guitar and sang a song whilst the doctors are still doing the procedure. Not only that, he was able to send a message to his loved ones and managed to hold a cup of water. That was great! An infusion of medicine, technology and social media unveiled when that medical breakthrough was captured in video.

It’s unbelievable to hear news like this. Even the attention-grabbing headlines about a man singing during surgery seem to be impossible. But it did happen. That’s the wonder of science and technology. Above all, it is God who made it happen. Doctors are just instruments.

Good thing that the operation turned out to be successful. Some patients suffered from injuries caused by surgical errors. These are some of the cases handled by negligence solicitors.

The development of modern technology and medical advancement serves as a tool to meet the needs of people. Technology continues to advance. People are becoming passionate in discovering for more cures for diseases, invention of additional equipment, development of more gadgets and other fascinating things in life. Food, shelter and clothing are man’s basic needs. As time goes by, these three basic needs seem to have more and more subheading. There are underlying items for each need. People expect to live a decent life.

Relevance of Medical Negligence Claims No Win No Fee

Medical negligence claims on a no win no fee basis helps rebuild shattered lives. Why is this so? Keep reading and find out.

Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) commonly known as no win no fee paved the way to an easier access to the justice system in the UK. People injured due to the mistakes of others can file a case even without sufficient funds. It lies on the condition that if it is unsuccessful, the client will not have to pay the solicitor. On the other hand, if it is successful, the client will have to pay the normal fees plus a success fee. The passage of the new law on personal injury claim that took effect on April 2013 can be clearly explained by a legal counsel.

The solicitor usually recommends taking out an After-the-Event (ATE) insurance to cover for any potential liability. This protects the client from any legal costs including disbursements.

There is a time limit of filing medical negligence claims no win no fee in the UK. An expert solicitor provides legal advice on how to bring a claim including the requirements and all the details involved in the compensation. It is better to consult an expert and know the whole process.

How to Win a Clinical Negligence Claim

How do you obtain medical negligence claims on a no win no fee basis in the UK?

In order to achieve compensation for a malpractice, the injured person needs to meet the law requirements of UK.

First, it is important to prove the presence of duty of care. Healthcare providers owe a duty to take care of their patients. NHS hospitals, private hospitals and healthcare professionals such as GPs, surgeons, dentists, physiotherapists, nurses and hospital staff are responsible in delivering a standard of care. It is expected from them to diagnose the health condition, investigate the symptoms, provide the right treatment, prescribe correct medication, recommend the necessary lab tests, administer the correct medication and comply with the safety procedures.

Second, a breach of duty should be proven. A doctor who commits negligence has breached the duty of care. The breach of duty can be a mistake like a misdiagnosis, failure to investigate the symptoms, delayed diagnosis, wrong treatment or incorrect prescription of drugs.

Third, it is necessary to prove the causation between the breach of duty and injury. The link between the two should be established.  It can be achieved with the assistance of a lawyer who specialises in compensation for injuries.

Lastly, the injury sustained by the person needs to be proven. It is essential to show evidence of the injury or illness suffered by person.

Medical Negligence Claims Help Patients Recover

People have different experiences when they are inside the Emergency Room of a hospital. For doctors, being inside the Emergency Room may be a dream come true as it is the culmination of years of studying medicine; it is the place where they get to put all their training to good use by saving the lives of accident victims.

For patients, being inside the Emergency Room may be a victim’s worst nightmare. People will be running around the Emergency Room floor as well as other adjoining rooms. People will be shouting at each other by dictating the life signs of critical accident victims and the things that have to be done. And other than the pain of wounds, patients may feel the pin pricks of needles, the scraping of endoscopies, and the slicing of scalpels.

And in all this chaos, it is possible that doctors and nurses may end up missing something that is very important for the life of the patient. Someone may miss out on what medicines a patient is allergic to; someone may forget to add enough lubricant to the endoscope; someone may miss that a patient is diabetic and has trouble clotting any type of wound.

Thankfully, Medical negligence claims allow patients who are victims of these errors to claim damages. An allergic reaction to medicines may cause swelling of internal organs; the failure of add enough lubricant can cause wounds in one’s throat; and incisions on diabetics today may lead to amputations tomorrow.

And since all of these will require money for healing, negligence claims prevent the condition of patients from getting any worse.

Some Clinical Negligence Claims are the Result of Not Getting a Second Opinion

The last thing I want to do after being misdiagnosed with something is to have to see the doctor who did it. It is not that I am afraid of him or am averse to reliving the trauma I underwent, the thing I do not want to have to go through is the feeling of extreme anger I feel for him.

Before being misdiagnosed, I lived a relatively active life. I went to the gym three times a week and would take my mountain bike for a ride in the countryside every Sunday. At the end of each physical activity, I would end up at my favourite pub with my mates for a beer or two to complete my relaxation.

But after being misdiagnosed with some stomach disease, I was put under preventive surgery. The result is that I am now unable to walk a few metres without feeling the need to go to the bathroom.

I can’t exercise in the gym for more than a few minutes; I can’t go farther than my driveway on my bike; and I can’t climb more than a flight of stairs anymore.

With so much change applied to my lifestyle, it only occurred to me to seek a second opinion. I know I should have done that before undergoing the knife, but I trusted my doctor and it never occurred to me to get another opinion. I am now paying the price for that error.

Not wanting to compound one mistake with another, I wasted no time in consulting a solicitor about my situation. And after a couple of meetings, he will be filing clinical negligence claims for this misdiagnosis.

It turns out that my situation is not composed of one, but two problems. The first is that I was misdiagnosed with some stomach disease. And the second is that the operation I underwent two years ago was not a success because I can not even walk a few steps without having to go to the bathroom.

Looking back, all of this could have been easily avoided if I had just gotten a second opinion. But not wanting to hurt the feelings of my doctor has left me hurting.

I was told by my solicitor that some clinical negligence claims are the result of people like me, who do not get a second opinion. So if you have been told by your doctor to undergo an operation, do yourself a favour and visit at least one other doctor for confirmation. You might never need that operation at all.

No Win No Fee UK Claims and Domination

Give What You Can

It is a problem in demanding No Win No Fee UK claims that sometimes the attitudes, both good and bad, of the lawyer is inadvertently imbibed by his client. In exerting his authority by ordering his client to do all kinds of tasks—collecting articles of evidence, contacting witnesses, providing factual information—he is also limiting the world of his client and possibly even reshaping it for him. This is something clients should beware.

For one thing, they must learn to discriminate what attitude they should replicate. It may happen that the particular lawyer who you have hired may be too workaholic, to the point that his health is already continually compromised. If you copy his attitude and become dangerously workaholic yourself, then you may reinjure yourself and be unable to proceed with your suit. The eminent reason, in other words, is practical. You need to think very carefully because your claim may be aborted if you do not.

Thus, while it is not an issue whether you should work hard, it is nevertheless imperative for you not to work too hard. You should, in short, give what you can—and no more. In case other people may criticize your decision not to exert all your strength in processing your claim, you must remind them that the rationale of claiming is to earn money primarily to pay for medical bills. A healthy body, to be sure, more than the compensation, is the real aim.

Indolence

It is a sure sign of maturity to discriminate what attitude of your No Win No Fee UK lawyer you should adopt while claiming. Knowing that he too, despite his brilliance, is still imperfect and finite, mature claimants choose to study how he thinks and acts first before finally deciding to judge whether overall his work ethic is a fine one or not. An assumption that is useful to pronounce here is that not everything that lawyers do will always work. There may be times when they shamefully exploit their clients’ trust and credulity to cover up for their bungling mistakes.

This critical attitude should not, however, be used as an excuse to cover up for indolence. It is highly tempting to just sit back and claim that we are still studying the actions and motives of our lawyers instead of trusting him and letting him direct us on what to do. Despite the fact that not all lawyers are ethical or right, the truth is that the claimant will never see for himself unless he does what he is told to do. The consequence of his lawyer’s orders, whether it furthered his claim or not in other words, will then be his guide in estimating his character. Activity and results, to say the same thing in other words, should be our bases in judging our lawyers.

Compensation Claims and Specifics

Precision as a Virtue

Perhaps the first adjustment that first-time claimants need to make when demanding compensation claims is to distinguish general from specific remarks. It is an understood philosophy in ordinary conversations that bare assertions can sometimes supplant solid arguments. Because of the everyday and non-serious nature of most cursory talk, we do not see the need to qualify our statements or place an army of proofs to adduce any of them. On the contrary, we are content with merely stating our opinions and expect other people to agree with us. In case they do not, then we can expect that then and only then will we find ourselves in need of arguments. The mere fact that anyone can contradict us, however, or point out any flaw in our reasoning is so uncommon that except in books, we can expect others to just weakly smile or dismiss what we said than engage us in overt confrontation.

In the courts, however, things are understandably different. Here, any written assertion made must be countersigned by a professional lawyer and if any part of it could be discovered as having been falsified, then the person who stated it could be held in contempt, even imprisoned, depending on the gravity of the lie.

When Claiming, Specify

It is not enough to launch general accusations when demanding compensation claims. Anyone could do that. More than this, you must supplement and verify your general assertions by advancing cogent proofs. Only by packing complete arguments into the courts can you expect to score a victory. Since this requirement of backing up everything you assert while making suit is understandably new to many first-time claimants, which is not their fault at all because ordinary conversations are not as critical, those who are aware of it and are able to come to hearings with airtight arguments usually win in the end.

Second, more than just attaching proofs to your assertions, you must also strive to be specific. For example, if you are demanding an accident at work claim, then you must explicitly explain exactly what injury you incurred and exactly how someone irresponsibly caused it. It is not enough that you assert that you were hurt because of someone. You must show, for example, that you broke your neck because your employer hired an incompetent driver and crashed the vehicle you were both riding. The secret, therefore, if there is any secret, in claiming compensation is to be precise, detailed, and meticulous.