Choosing the right medical negligence lawyer to help you with a claim is important because it could have an impact on how much compensation you’ll receive. But how do you go about choosing one? This guide will explain what you should do and what to look for if you’re searching for medical negligence solicitors in Christchurch. We’ll also provide examples of negligent acts, whether deliberate or caused by mistakes, which could lead to compensation claims.
Our panel of medical negligence solicitors are not based in Christchurch, Dorset, but can cover the area with ease, so if you’re looking to begin a claim today, you can contact us on 0800 652 3087.
Alternatively, if you’d like to research more about choosing a medical negligence solicitor, please carry on reading this handy guide.
Choose A Section
- How You Could Find The Right Medical Claims Solicitor For Your Case
- Does The Location Of My Solicitor Matter?
- If I Need A Medical Exam, Could It Be Carried Out Close To Me?
- How To Use Reviews Of Different Solicitors
- Private Or NHS Medical Malpractice Claims You Could Make
- Negligence Complaints Against Care Home Providers
- Claims For Operative Errors
- Mismanaged Labour Or Birth Injuries
- Dorset Hospital Negligence Claims
- Delayed Diagnosis Or Treatment Of Cancer
- NHS Or Private Dental Negligence
- Medical Negligence Claims For GP / Doctor Errors
- Clinical Negligence Statistics Related To NHS Trusts In Dorset
- No Win No Fee Claims For Delays, Misdiagnosis Or Treatment Errors
- Dorset Hospitals And Medical Facilities
- Talk To Our Team
- Resource Materials
How You Could Find The Right Medical Claims Solicitor For Your Case
When choosing medical negligence solicitors in Christchurch, you might want to ask for a recommendation from a colleague or friend or read solicitor reviews to help you. Both can help but what works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Therefore, this guide will provide advice about what to look for and what questions to ask any personal injury solicitor prior to signing up with them.
Before that step though, you should ensure you’re eligible to begin a claim. The tests for medical negligence claims are:
- Did a medical professional, such as a doctor, dentist, surgeon or nurse provide you with substandard or negligent treatment?
- And, because of that treatment, did you become ill, suffer an injury or were your existing symptoms made worse?
Finally, before our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors can take on your case, you’ll need to ensure your claim is within the medical negligence claims time limit of 3 years. However, there are exceptions to the time limit, so please contact us to discuss your circumstances.
If, after reading this guide, you have any questions about making a personal injury claim, then please get in touch with one of our legal advisors, we’ll happily provide free legal advice with regards to your circumstances and eligibility to make a claim.
Does The Location Of My Solicitor Matter?
We often hear clients suggest that “I need to find medical negligence solicitors in my area”, which is definitely not the case. By only searching for clinical negligence solicitors in Christchurch, Dorset, you’re limiting your options.
Because it is not a requirement of the claims process to meet your solicitor face to face, they can be based anywhere in the UK. Therefore, it could be a much better idea to concentrate on their skills in making successful medical negligence claims and the fact they can demonstrate similar cases to yours that they’ve taken on recently.
If I Need A Medical Exam, Could It Be Carried Out Close To Me?
To make claiming even easier, and to limit how much travelling you need to complete during your claim, we work with a panel of doctors across the UK that we use to undertake any medical assessment required as part of your claim.
A sample of the specialists in an around Christchurch that we might use include:
David Magee
1 Twynham Avenue,
Christchurch, BH23 1QU.
Ayubur Raham
Kinson Community Centre,
Millhams Road,
Bournemouth, BH10 7LH.
Matthew Moorhouse 348 Poole Road,
Bournemouth, BH12 1AW.
How To Use Reviews Of Different Solicitors
Medical negligence solicitor’s reviews can be really useful tools to begin looking for clinical negligence solicitors in Christchurch, Dorset. They offer an insight into how previous clients have found the solicitors professionalism, how many updates they received throughout the case and if they were happy with the compensation they received.
After reading reviews it could be an idea to contact any personal injury lawyer you’re considering because reviews won’t tell you if you’ll get along with the solicitor, whether they’ve won any similar cases recently or what compensation amount they estimate you’ll receive.
Private Or NHS Medical Malpractice Claims You Could Make
To help you understand what type of NHS negligence complaints (or private healthcare complaints) might lead to a compensation claim, we’re going to provide some examples of negligent acts by different medical professionals over the coming sections of this guide.
Negligence Complaints Against Care Home Providers
Finding a place in a care home for a loved one can be quite tough and you have to place a lot of trust in the provider. Care homes actually have a set of procedures for health and safety provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
If staff fail to follow procedures or fail to care for patients appropriately, which causes the patient to suffer in any way, then a claim might be possible. If it can be proven that the failure to uphold the correct standard of care is deemed as negligent and the resident is caused undue harm as a result then a medical negligence compensation claim could be made.
Some examples where you might be able to claim compensation include:
- Any injuries from falls, such as bruising or broken bones, caused because staff tried to move patients without following the correct lifting procedures.
- Illnesses caused when patients don’t receive their prescribed medication on time.
- Suffering caused by care home abuse.
- Any suffering or pain caused by bedsores (or pressure sores) caused because the patient wasn’t moved regularly.
Claims For Operative Errors
Surgeons often perform very complex procedures in the operating theatre. Many of these come with an associated level of risk which is usually explained to the patient prior to surgery.
Did you know though that even though you might’ve signed a waiver or consent form, any injuries sustained during surgery because of operative errors could lead to a compensation claim? A waiver doesn’t exonerate surgical errors if an avoidable injury is caused by a negligent act or omission.
Some examples include:
- Where a patient suffers and requires remedial treatment because suturing was inadequate, or a faulty medical clip has failed.
- If the patient suffers because items of surgical equipment were left inside them.
- When an anaesthetic error leads to the patient waking during surgery and feeling pain.
Mismanaged Labour Or Birth Injuries
Giving birth can be either really straightforward or can become very complex very quickly in some circumstances. This is why midwives and other medical professionals involved in the delivery of a baby undergo years of training so that they know what to do in the event of any problems during labour.
If a problem isn’t spotted or staff react to it without following the correct procedures and either mother or baby become injured, then a compensation claim could be possible for any pain or suffering caused.
If you believe you or your baby were injured due to a mismanaged labour, then please call one of our specialists to discuss your compensation options.
Dorset Hospital Negligence Claims
Hospitals have procedures in place to protect the safety of patients and staff as much as possible.
Whether you were admitted to a hospital for a planned procedure or you were taken there during an emergency, if you suffer any injury, become ill or your condition is made worse while receiving treatment then you might be able to seek compensation for your injuries, pain or suffering if they were caused by some form of negligence.
Here are some examples of negligence which may lead to a claim:
- Injuries or suffering that are caused by surgical negligence.
- Any illness caused by hygiene issues which cause the spread of MRSA.
- Illnesses caused by incorrect dispensing of medicines.
- Any suffering caused by a delay in treatment caused by a misdiagnosis.
Delayed Diagnosis Or Treatment Of Cancer
There is never a good time to receive the news that you’ve got cancer of any type. It is, however, better to receive the news early in many cases as the prognosis for some cancers increases the early it is spotted, and the sooner treatment begins.
Therefore, a delay in treatment can have an adverse effect on a patient’s health. If a cancer is spotted early it may be a stage 1 cancer which can be treated with the least invasive forms of treatment, whereas stage 3 or 4 cancer may require a much more aggressive form of treatment or may not be treatable at all.
If the delay was caused because a medical professional failed to spot the cancer when they had the opportunity to do so, then the patient could be eligible to claim compensation if they have suffered as a result.
NHS Or Private Dental Negligence
Dentists and their medical staff have a duty of care to ensure patients are treated correctly and all procedures are carried out properly. Any deviation from these procedures, which is not justified and leads to the patient suffering an injury might mean compensation could be claimed.
This could include:
- Negligence during treatment which leads to damaged gums, nerves or teeth.
- Pain caused by surgery that wasn’t required when a dentist misdiagnoses a problem.
- Any pain caused because the anaesthetic dosage was incorrect.
Medical Negligence Claims For GP / Doctor Errors
As residents of the UK, we are extremely lucky to have access to GP’s as part of the NHS service. They are usually the first health care professional that we turn to when we have medical issues and concerns. They very often spot problems and recommend treatments that resolve the issue within the first appointment which is great.
However, if the GP fails to spot the correct condition, offers treatment for something unrelated or prescribes the wrong medicine then their patients could suffer unnecessarily. If this happens, then a claim for medical negligence could be made. For more information regarding GP negligence, please click the link at the bottom of this guide.
Clinical Negligence Statistics Related To NHS Trusts In Dorset
To demonstrate the compensation amounts for medical negligence paid out by the NHS in the Christchurch area, we’ve provided the table below:
Healthcare Provider | Claims in 2017/2018 | Number of Incidents 2017/2018 | Damages Payments |
---|---|---|---|
Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (The) | 34 | * | £2,962,402 |
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 27 | * | £2,996,140 |
Dorset HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust | 14 | 0 | £518,168 |
The figures show the number of complaints raised as well as the amounts paid out for NHS compensation for misdiagnosis and other forms of negligence. The data came from this NHS table.
No Win No Fee Claims For Delays, Misdiagnosis Or Treatment Errors
To make claiming easier for many, many medical negligence solicitors offer a no win no fee service for claims they take on.
This means that:
- You don’t have to pay any fees before the claim can begin.
- There’s nothing to pay to your solicitor if they lose the case.
- And if the case is won, the success fee charged by the solicitor (maximum 25% by law), is deducted from the compensation.
Choosing this funding option could also reduce the amount of stress involved in claiming.
Dorset Hospitals And Medical Facilities
Please see below a list of hospitals close to the Dorset and Christchurch area:
- Christchurch Hospital.
- Fairmile House.
- Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
- Kings Park Hospital.
- Poole Hospital.
- St Leonards Hospital.
- Victoria Hospital.
- Nuffield Health Bournemouth.
Talk To Our Team
If you’d like to discuss beginning a claim today with our panel of medical negligence solicitors who are not based in Christchurch but could cover the area, then you call Medical Negligence Assist on 0800 652 3087 or, alternatively, you can fill in an online claims form so that we can call you back at a convenient time.
We’ll assess your claim and provide you with free, no-obligation advice and help you decide whether you could make use of the no win no fee services offered by our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors.
Resource Materials
Now that you’ve read this guide about finding medical negligence solicitors in Christchurch, we’ve linked to some useful resources below:
Christchurch Hospital
Fairmile Road,
Christchurch,
Dorset, NH23 2JX.
Dorset Care Provision – Services provided by Dorset County Council which includes care homes.
Medical Negligence Calculator – a useful guide that shows the possible medical malpractice compensation amount offered for some injuries.
GP Negligence Claims – This guide has briefly touched on GP negligence, the article we link to here provides a more detailed look at these claims.
MRSA Claims – A more detailed look at the causes and symptoms of MRSA and when you could make a claim for illnesses caused by it.
Written by Brett.
Edited by Charlotte.