Ashford Medical Negligence Solicitors – No Win No Fee Claims Lawyers Guide

Medical negligence Ashford

Medical negligence Ashford

Choosing a medical negligence solicitor can be tricky.  Even when you receive a recommendation from a friend, the solicitor that helped them might not be the best one to help you.  So, where do you start?  This guide is as good a place as any and will provide tips and ideas of what to look for. In this guide we will explain why medical negligence solicitors in Ashford may not be your only option.

We will cover why a solicitors experience, competency and knowledge in medical negligence should outweigh a solicitors location. Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Ashford area so could work with you on a claim.  If you’d like to discuss this today, call us on 0800 652 3087.

To find out more before contacting us, please carry on reading.

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How Do I Choose Between Clinical Negligence Solicitors?

To pick a medical negligence lawyer you might ask for suggestions from family members, colleagues or friends.  You could even look at reviews of solicitors.  These could both provide a useful starting point but won’t necessarily provide the definitive answer.  We’ll provide more ideas throughout this guide about what else you could do.

Before that though, you might want to understand what constitutes medical negligence and when you could make a claim.  In most cases, a personal injury lawyer would want to prove that:

  • You received substandard treatment or care from a medical professional such as doctor, dentist, nurse, surgeon or care home worker.
  • And that the substandard treatment led to you being injured, contracting an illness or your existing condition was made worse.

If both statements are true, then you could be eligible to begin a claim, so long as it’s made within the medical negligence claims time limit of 3 years.  Due to the nature of some medical claims, you should contact us as soon as possible because, even though 3 years seems like a long time, some claims require a lot of complex evidence to be gathered. The time limit restraints can vary so if you need more information do not hesitate to contact our team.

In this guide we’ll cover examples of negligence including medical negligence during childbirth, negligence leading to a dental injury, mistakes by NHS staff and negligence which leads to a permanent disability.  Don’t worry if you don’t see an example similar to yours though.  If you need your case assessed in a free consultation call the number at the bottom of this guide for free legal advice with no obligation.

Should I Claim With A Solicitor In My Area?

Some clients think that they have to use clinical negligence solicitors in Ashford to make their claim.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  You can use any personal injury solicitor to make your claim and shouldn’t limit yourself to a certain area.

You don’t need to meet face to face with your solicitor so where their office is located doesn’t matter.  It’s far more important that you choose a solicitor who specialises in medical negligence cases and has years of experience doing so.

To reduce any travelling required, we do have a panel of medical specialists across the UK who can be used to perform any medical assessment required as part of your personal injury claim.  We’ll provide a sample of local specialists in the next section.

We Have A Panel Of Doctors Who Could Perform Your Medical Checkup

Here are some medical specialists who can undertake assessments in the Ashford area:

Soreen Saeed
Julie Rose Stadium,
Willesborough Road,
Ashford, TN24 9QX.

Abhinav Gulihar
The Charing Practice,
1 Surgery Close,
Ashford, TN27 0AW.

Reading Reviews Could Help You Choose A Specialist Solicitor

Some people like to read medical negligence solicitors reviews to help choose the best solicitor to make their claim.  While this is a good idea and can help narrow down your choices, we recommend picking up the phone and speaking with any prospective solicitor and their clinical negligence team.

This will allow you to ask any questions, get a feel of whether you’ll be able to work with the solicitor and their team and to find out important information such as what success fee they’ll charge, how often they’ll update you and what similar cases they’ve taken on recently, all information you probably won’t be able to gather from reviews.

Clinical Malpractice And Negligence Claims Conducted By Our Panel Of Specialist Solicitors

In the next few sections, we’re going to provide examples of negligent acts which might lead to a compensation claim.  This is just some example cases, we could provide advice on any other types of negligence too so please get in touch to discuss your case if it’s not listed here.

General Surgery Negligence

Most patients realise that there are risks associated with surgery and should have them explained to them before the operation takes place.  Ultimately, they have to put their faith in the surgeon and their team to ensure their safety.

If the patient suffers any form of injury though, which was caused by surgical negligence, then they may be able to claim compensation.   For example:

  • When the patient suffers injuries to unrelated internal organs during surgery.
  • If the patient suffers pain or complications due to surgical equipment such as swabs, clips or sponges being left inside them following surgery.
  • If there are any complications which cause pain or suffering caused by defective clips or suturing that fail post-surgery.
  • Or when the patient wakes up or feels pain during surgery due to an anaesthetic error.

Birth Injuries And Trauma

Midwives, doctors, nurses and paediatricians are all specially trained in dealing with any complications that arrive in childbirth.  In cases where something unusual happens or a problem arises, their training and the procedures that are put in place should mean the problem is resolved and the mother and baby remain as safe as possible.

In cases where the problem isn’t spotted though due to failure to monitor correctly, or the correct procedures aren’t followed, and either mother or baby becomes injured, then this maybe deemed as negligent.

An extreme example of birth injury could be; if the unborn baby is showing signs of distress during the delivery process but the medical staff fail to notice this and the situation is resolved too late, the baby may suffer hypoxia which may lead to Cerebral Palsy in which case the medical team maybe liable due to negligence.

Negligent Cancer Treatment

Cancer treatment has advanced drastically over the last few years with advances meaning that many cancers are highly treatable if they are spotted early and treatment begins as early as possible.

Therefore, any delay in receiving treatment could result in a less positive diagnosis and could lead to the patient suffering a lot more than they would have had the treatment started earlier.

If you have suffered due to negligent cancer treatment, maybe your diagnosis was a lot later than it could have been therefore delaying the treatment which may have meant more extensive prolonged evasive treatment, if so call our advisors and they maybe able to offer further information. 

Hospital Negligence Claims

Medical professionals within the hospital have a duty of care to ensure patient safety when possible by following agreed procedures and guidelines. They also have a duty of care to provide a minimum standard of service so that patients are not harmed and receive the required treatment. If the standard of care, treatment or service falls below what is expected resulting in negligence and a patient is harmed it may be considered as medical negligence.

Here are a few examples of negligence within a hospital which could lead to a claim:

  • When a patient suffers unnecessarily due a delay in treatment following a negligent misdiagnosis or late diagnosis.
  • If a new illness is caused by side-effect caused by the wrong medicine being prescribed.
  • When conditions like pneumonia are contracted because the patient has been infected with MRSA due to hygiene issues.
  • Any form of avoidable injury caused by surgical negligence.

Nursing Home/ Care Home Negligence

Leaving a loved one in a care home can be a really hard thing to do.  You need to have complete faith that the care home will look after them and follow the Health and Safety Executives care home procedures.   If a resident or patient of a care home is injured, caused an illness, or has an existent condition made worse due to negligent care, carelessness, little or poor training, abuse then a claim for care home negligence may exist.

Examples could include:

  • A patient who becomes ill because their prescribed medication was not dispensed at the correct intervals.
  • If a patient suffers an injury while being moved or lifted by untrained staff.
  • Any suffering caused by care home abuse.
  • Or if the patent suffers from bed sores or pressure sores due to being left in the same position for too long.

Negligence By Your GP

Most people, who are feeling ill or have a medical concern, take a trip to the GP as for their first assessment of the problem.  In many cases, even though appointments are relatively short, the GP makes a diagnosis, prescribes a treatment or refers the patient to a specialist for further assessment.

If a GP makes a mistake in the diagnosis, a patient could suffer if they face a delay in treatment, are treated for the incorrect illness or are prescribed the wrong medicine. If you have any questions at all about GP negligence, medical negligence or to see if you are eligible to claim why not call our advisors the number is at the bottom of the screen they will through a free consultation assess your case and give you an honest answer.

Negligence By Your Dentist

The final type of negligence we’ll cover is that of dental negligence.   In a similar way to GPs or surgeons, dentists and their staff have a duty of care to ensure patients are as safe as possible while undergoing treatment.  If they fail to meet their duty of care because they didn’t follow recommended procedures, made a mistake or were negligent in any other way, then a claim could possibly be made against them for any suffering caused.

For instance:

  • If a patient suffers any avoidable injuries, damage to healthy teeth or damaged gums during surgery.
  • Extraction of the totally wrong tooth.
  • If any pain is caused by an anaesthetic mistake.
  • Or if the dentist fails to spot a condition, such as oral cancer, which causes the patient to suffer due to a lack of treatment.

If you think you’ve suffered because of any type of injury caused by dental negligence, please contact our team to discuss whether you could make a claim or not.

Data Showing Rates Of Reported Medical Negligence In Ashford, Kent

In the table below, you’ll find details about how much compensation was paid for NHS negligence in the Ashford area between 2017-2018:

Healthcare ProviderClaims in 2017/2018Number of Incidents 2017/2018Damages Payments
Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust49*£6,746,288
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust66£671,000

This data comes from this NHS factsheet.

No Win No Fee Claims With Our Clinical Negligence Team

You might worry about the cost of hiring a specialist solicitor to make a claim for clinical negligence or medical negligence, but you don’t need to.

Our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors offer a no win no fee service for all claims they take on.   This means:

  • You don’t need to pay the solicitor anything up front.
  • If you don’t receive compensation, you don’t have to pay them anything at all.
  • If the case is won, and you receive compensation, you don’t need to find funds to cover the solicitor’s success fee as it’s taken straight from the compensation.

Success fees are limited legally to 25% of any compensation but might be less.

Ashford Hospitals

As mentioned earlier, our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Ashford area, meaning they could help with claims against any medical establishment.

  • Ashford Hospital.
  • St Peter’s Hospital.
  • William Harvey Hospital.
  • The Coxheath Centre.
  • Maidstone Hospital.
  • BMI The Chaucer Hospital

Contact Us

Hopefully, now you’ve read this guide, you’d like to discuss your claim with us today.  If so, you can get in touch by:

Further Resources

Now that you’ve reached the end of this guide, we’ve provided some links to other resources which we think you may find useful:

Ashford Hospital
London Road,
Ashford,
Surrey, TW15 3AA.
Web:www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk

Inspection Report – The most up to date inspection of Ashford Hospital from the Care Quality Commission.

NHS Care Services – Information from the NHS about care services they offer.

GP Compensation Claims – Although we’ve covered this briefly, the linked guide provides a more detailed look at when you could claim against your GP.

Dental Negligence – Information on when you can claim compensation for dental negligence or for a botched dental procedure.

Edited by LisM.