Bury St Edmunds Medical Negligence Solicitors – No Win No Fee Claims Lawyers Guide

Medical negligence Bury St Edmunds

Medical negligence Bury St Edmunds

If you’re about to hire a medical negligence solicitor for the first time, you might be overwhelmed with your choices. You could be wondering where to start and what to look for. Luckily for you, this article is going to provide advice to help you and guide you on how to make your choice.

You could make things easier on yourself by calling us today as our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Bury St Edmunds area. If you would like to discuss how we could help you claim, please call us on 0800 652 3087 and speak with a specialist advisor.

If you prefer to read on, then please do so to find out more about how to choose a personal injury solicitor to help with your claim.

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What Do I Need To Know When Choosing A Medical Negligence Solicitor?

Before selecting a solicitor to look at your claim, you might want to check the eligibility criteria that many solicitors will use to determine whether you have a valid claim or not. If you answer yes to the following 3 questions, you could be able to use a no win no fee claims service:

  1. Did you receive any form of poor, substandard or negligent treatment from a medical professional?
  2. Did that treatment cause you to become ill, sustain an injury or for your pre-existing illness to be made worse?
  3. Was the treatment within the medical negligence claims time limit of 3 years? (There are, however, exceptions to the time limit so please contact us to find out more).

Once you’ve ascertained eligibility to claim, your next step is to find the right solicitor.  Many people will simply ask for advice from friends or colleagues, read reviews or ask members of their family for a recommendation.

These types of advice can help, but not always, so we’ll provide guidance throughout this article about what you need to ask any potential solicitor before agreeing to use them.

When you’ve finished reading this guide, if you need any further advice about making a claim, then please get in touch with one of our specialist advisors who happily provide free legal advice about what steps you need to take prior to beginning a claim.

Will My Claim Need To Be Made With A Local Solicitor?

There’s really no reason to stick to local solicitors when making a medical negligence claim. You no longer need to have face to face meetings, as modern communication methods like email and phone allow you to be provided with regular updates without the need for appointments.

Therefore, choose a solicitor based on their history of medical negligence claims and their examples of cases they’ve won recently rather than where their office is located.

Doctors Based In This Area Could Carry Out Your Medical Exam

If you decide to let us help you begin your claim, we’ll make sure you don’t have to travel far to undergo a medical assessment.  We can do this because we have a panel of doctors and medical specialists across the UK. A sample of those in the Bury St Edmunds region include:

Mallika Kumar
Burt St Edmunds Clinic,
4 Kempson Way,
Bury St Edmunds, IP32 7AR.

Ramangowd Ganadinni
Self Centre,
Bury St Edmunds, IP32 7AR.

How Helpful Could I Be To Look At Reviews Of A Solicitor?

As mentioned earlier, medical negligence solicitor reviews can be a useful tool when assessing a solicitor.  When using them you could look for information left by previous clients such as how happy they were with the firm, if they received regular updates and, fairly importantly, were they happy with the compensation they received?

That being said, we’d recommend you speak with any potential solicitor personally to try and gauge how they will handle your case, when they’ll provide you with updates and, if possible, how much compensation they think you’ll receive should your case be won.

Claims Handled By Clinical Negligence Solicitors

Now we’re going to look at what sort of negligence could lead to a personal injury claim being made by providing you with some examples of different forms of medical negligence.

Remember that a personal injury lawyer would usually want to prove that you were treated negligently, by a medical professional, in the last 3 years before they will take on your case.

Cancer Misdiagnosis Claims

As cancer research technologies have advanced so much over recent years, the chances of survival has also increased with many cancers. The prognosis for most patients is much better if the cancer is diagnosed as early as possible.

If there’s a delay in diagnosis, which leads to a delay in treatment, then the cancer can advance and the treatment options might not be as favourable. In the worst cases, the cancer can become untreatable, in others, a delay might mean the treatment required is more painful and more aggressive.

Therefore, if a patient’s symptoms worsen and the delay in treatment was caused by a misdiagnosis or late diagnosis, then misdiagnosed cancer compensation could be sought.

Surgical Negligence

When you need to go ‘under the knife’, whether it’s for cosmetic or general surgery, the surgeon or their team will explain any risks to you prior to treatment. You’ll also be asked to sign a waiver or consent form to say you understand the risks. That doesn’t mean you can’t seek compensation if you’re injured during surgery though.

You may be able to claim in some of these examples:

  • If the surgeon fails to remove surgical equipment from inside of you and you need to be operated on again to retrieve it.
  • When you suffer pain because you woke up during surgery due to an anaesthetic mistake.
  • If suturing or a medical clip fails post-surgery which causes complications and requires more treatment.

Birth Negligence Claims

The birth of a baby can sometimes be relatively calm and relaxed and go according to plan and be fairly quick. On other occasions though, the labour can extend into many days, suffer complex problems and could lead to surgery in cases where the baby can’t be delivered normally.

That’s why staff in a maternity unit are trained in relevant procedures so they know what to do when something doesn’t go according to plan. If they fail to follow these procedures, fail to spot a problem that’s happening or deal with it incorrectly then birth negligence claims could be made if the mother, baby or both become injured or ill.

If you’d like to discuss how to make a birth injury negligence claim, please contact one of our specialist advisors for free legal advice.

Negligence Claims Against Doctor’s

In a lot of cases, GPs manage to diagnose a problem, provide a treatment plan or refer the patient on to a specialist for further tests in the first appointment.

However, there are times where the GP might not spot the problem on the first appointment or treat it as something else meaning the patient doesn’t’ receive the correct treatment for some time.  In this scenario, if the patient suffers because of the delay, then medical negligence solicitors covering Bury St Edmunds could launch a negligence claim for the suffering caused.

Hospital Negligence Claims

Usually, a trip to the hospital results in a patient being treated, their condition being managed, or, in a lot of cases, their condition being cured.  On some occasions though, hospital staff make mistakes which can lead to a patient suffering in some way.  In these situations, the patient could sue the hospital for the suffering caused by staff negligence.

For instance, these examples could lead to claim against the hospital:

  • If the patient’s condition gets worse due to a misdiagnosis which meant their treatment was delayed.
  • Where a patient becomes ill because they contracted MRSA or another superbug within the hospital.
  • Any injuries caused by negligence during surgery.

Nursing Home Negligence

Having to rely on a nursing home to care for a loved one involves a lot of trust and faith in the management of the home. They have a duty of care to look after all patients by following health and safety guidance from the Health and Safety Executive.

If the staff in a care home fail to follow procedures and a patient suffers as a result, then you could claim compensation on their behalf if they’re unable to do so themselves.

Here are a few examples of care home negligence which could lead to a claim:

  • Patients who suffer from bedsores because they were not moved by staff often enough.
  • Illnesses caused because prescriptions were not dispensed on time.
  • Fractures or bruising sustained during a fall where an incorrect lifting procedure was used.

Negligence By Dentists

Any dentist has a duty of care towards their patients to ensure they are safe while undergoing any form of treatment, including check-ups.  They can do this by using standard procedures, maintaining and repairing equipment and ensuring the hygiene standards throughout the practice are good.

If they breach their duty of care through a negligent act that results in a patient suffering, then a dental injury claim might be possible.  This could include:

  • If a patient suffers any damage to healthy teeth, nerves or gums during treatment.
  • When treatment is performed which wasn’t required because of a misdiagnosis.
  • Or if pain is felt during treatment because the anaesthetic didn’t work correctly.

Clinical Error And Negligence Claims Made Against NHS Trusts In This Area

The table below provides details of NHS negligence claims made against the foundation trust operating within Bury St Edmunds.

Healthcare ProviderClaims in 2017/2018Number of Incidents 2017/2018CNST Damages
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust228£4,266,530

The data was obtained from this NHS report and shows the number of claims in 2017 and the amount of compensation paid.

Make Your Claim With A No Win No Fee Agreement

People often worry about the costs involved with hiring a medical negligence lawyer which is why many, including our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors, offer a no win no fee service.

With no win no fee you:

  • Don’t pay your solicitor any upfront fees or charges.
  • Won’t pay your solicitor anything at all if they fail to win your case.
  • And you won’t have to find the funds to pay your solicitor if they win because their success fee, which is limited by law to 25% of your compensation, is deducted directly from any money you’re awarded.

Hospitals In Bury St Edmunds

Some hospitals in Bury St Edmunds area:

  • West Suffolk Hospital.
  • Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
  • Colchester Hospital.
  • BMI St Edmunds Hospital.
  • Abbey View Clinic.
  • Crystal Palace Physio Group.

Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Bury St Edmunds area so could help with claims at any of these facilities and those not listed here too.

Start Your Claim

Now that you’ve read this guide, if you’d like to discuss your claim for private healthcare negligence or NHS negligence then you can contact a specialist on 0800 652 3087.  Furthermore, you could arrange a call back by filling in this online form.

Helpful Links

Now that you’ve come to the end of this guide which was about finding medical negligence solicitors in Bury St Edmunds, we’ve added some useful resources for you below:

West Suffolk Hospital
Hardwick Lane,
Bury St Edmunds, IP33 2QZ.
Web:www.wsh.nhs.uk/Home.aspx

Inspection Report – The latest inspection from the Care Quality Commission which rated the hospital as outstanding overall.

NHS England – The website for the latest NHS news, plans and service announcements.

Hospital Claims – A guide to hospital claims which could be used for West Suffolk hospital negligence or mistakes at West Suffolk hospital.

Cauda Equina Syndrome – This guide provides information about spinal injuries and Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES).

Wrongful Death Negligence Claims – Read here to learn about how you could be entitled to make a claim on behalf of a loved one who tragically lost their lives as a result of medical negligence.

Written by Brett.

Edited by Charlotte.