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

Our Guide To Clinical Negligence Compensation Claims In Dorset

Medical negligence Dorset

Medical negligence Dorset

If you have been harmed because of clinical negligence, our team are here to help you. We specialise in helping those who have been affected by and harmed through negligent medical care to get the compensation they deserve. We work with a panel of medical negligence solicitors who could handle your claim, as well as a panel of doctors who may assess your health. Whilst we are not specifically medical negligence solicitors in Dorset, our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors could help people across the region and county to make a Dorset medical negligence claim.

What is medical or clinical negligence or malpractice? Broadly, these terms are used in describing circumstances in which a physician or other professional has made an avoidable mistake in your treatment which has caused you harm. This harm my be illness, injury or even psychological symptoms.

In this guide we look at circumstances in which you could make a claim, provide tips on how to pick a medical negligence solicitor and look at how to fund your case.

Choose A Section

How To Choose Between Different Clinical Claims Solicitors

The process of finding the right person to handle your medical negligence claim could be difficult. There are many different solicitors, lawyers and medical claims companies across the UK who could handle your case so how do you find the right person to handle your case? We believe that instead of sifting through lots of different solicitors across the UK you could simply contact our team and find out of our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors could help you.

At Medical Negligence Assist we work with a specialist panel of expert medical negligence solicitors. These medical negligence solicitors specialise in helping people to claim compensation in circumstances as varied as pursuing nursing home negligence claims to claims for negligence in surgery. They could take steps such as helping to collect evidence and it could be organised to you to have a medical examination.

Are Medical Negligence Solicitors In Dorset Best For My Claim?

It is quite common for people to begin their search for a personal injury solicitor by looking at those based in their local area. However, we think that this could be quite limiting. In general, personal injury claims will not need to be conducted in person and you and the personal injury lawyer or solicitor working on your claim will not need to meet you in person. We think that when choosing who will handle your claim don’t just look for ‘medical negligence solicitors in my area’ but look for the person best qualified to conduct your claim. This could be a solicitor in your local area or one based on the other side of the country.

By talking to our team, you could see how our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Dorset area and how they could help you.

Where Could My Medical Exam Be Carried Out?

Part of the no win no fee clinical negligence claims process which you may have to go through is undergoing a medical examination with an impartial doctor (or other relevant medical specialist). They will listen to what happened to you, check your injuries and assess whether a peer of the healthcare professional would have acted in a different way.

We appreciate that you may not wish to travel a long way for this appointment. As such, we work with a panel of doctors based across the UK. In Dorset, these include,

Ali Al-bahrani
Dorchester physiotherapy Clinic,
23 Buttermarket Poundbury,
Dorchester,
Dorset,
DT1 3AZ

James Hampton
331 New Road,
Ferndown,
Dorset,
BH22 8EJ

How Helpful Are Reviews Of Different Medical Negligence Solicitors?

Sifting through a list which could potentially include dozens of different personal injury solicitors could be laborious. Whilst you can find out a lot from websites, how do you dig deeper to see if a solicitor really are the right person for you to make a claim with?

We think one helpful way to compare or contrast different solicitors is to look at how satisfied people have been with their services in the past. You could look at different medical negligence solicitors reviews, seeing whether they may have handled cases similar to your own.

Beyond this, another potentially helpful step you could take is to contact our team. They will be able to let you know if you could make a claim, use a personal injury claims calculator to estimate what you could claim and let you know if a member of our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors could handle your case.

Examples Of Common Clinical Negligence Cases

As we looked at in the introduction to this article, clinical negligence is a broad term which could be used to describe many different circumstances. Some circumstances in which you could wish to make a claim are,

  • Negligence cases against dentists, such as for taking out the wrong tooth.
  • Instances of medical misdiagnosis, such as misdiagnosing cancer.
  • Delayed treatment medical negligence, such as for undue delays to treatment of an illness.
  • Avoidable mistakes by a nurse, health care worker or a doctor.

To be able to make a claim in any of these circumstances you will need two pieces of evidence. Firstly you need to show that you were under a doctors care and that they failed to uphold this duty of care. Secondly, you need to show that harm (which could otherwise have been avoided) was caused.

Dorset Hospital Negligence Claims

The circumstances in which you may need to make a hospital negligence compensation claim could significantly vary from person to person. However, there are some circumstances involving medical negligence by doctors (or other staff) in a hospital which may be seem more often than others.

Some examples of hospital negligence compensation claims are,

  • Negligence in surgery which could present as either injuries or the contraction of an illness. We shall look in more detail at these circumstances next.
  • Claims for negligent care at an Accident and Emergency department. You may not be diagnosed or treated correctly.
  • Gynecological, pregnancy care or birth care negligence. We shall look at this in more detail.
  • Negligence in orthopaedic treatment.

You could have grounds to make a medical negligence claim no matter whether you were under the care of the NHS or private sector.

Negligence In Surgery / An Operation

Whilst it is sad to say cases of negligence in surgery can and do happen to people across the country. Patients may be subjected to substandard levels of pre or post-operative care, operations themselves may fall below acceptable standards or a member of a surgical team may not follow correct surgical guidelines.

Any surgery should be performed with the appropriate level of care and precision. Consistent standards are key to surgical procedures going well. Even a simple error which could have been avoided may lead to very serious complications for a patient. For a very small number of people this could have fatal consequences. If you were harmed because of the negligent actions of a surgeon, a medical negligence lawyer could help you to claim compensation.

Medical Negligence In Childbirth

Avoidable mistakes or errors in the care of a pregnant mother at the point of delivery or failures to adequately monitor the baby could cause serious harm. Both mother or baby could be seriously harmed and be left with life-long consequences.

Examples of injuries in childbirth are,

  • Cerebral Palsy.
  • Erb’s Palsy.
  • General birth negligence.
  • Wrongful births.
  • Stillbirths.
  • Vaginal tears.

Medical Negligence By Doctors At A GP Surgery

Whilst most care which is provided by your GP will be excellent, there may be instances of medical negligence by doctors for which you could claim compensation for. A doctor may fail to carry out an adequate and thorough examination of your health or fail to spot what should have been visible symptoms. GP’s are required to see a large number of patients on a daily and weekly basis. They must also treat people or provide diagnosis in a very wide range of illnesses or recommend a variety of options for treatment. Due to the pressure that doctors are often under to see and treat a large number of people, instances of negligence could happen.

If you have been harmed by negligence caused by a GP in the last three years (the general medical negligence claims time limit) you could claim compensation.

Nursing Home Negligence Claims

Residential care homes, such as nursing homes and care homes, employ people to provide residents with medical and general healthcare as applicable. Nursing home staff must also ensure that residents basic needs are met and that they neither come to harm, nor are neglected or abused under the care of the home and staff. If residents are harmed, they may be able to claim compensation.

Cancer Clinical Misdiagnosis

Cases of medical negligence in the treatment of cancer could manifest as delayed treatment medical negligence or clinical negligence in cancer misdiagnosis. If you have been harmed due to clinical negligence in the treatment of cancer, you could be able to claim compensation for medical negligence.

If you are able to claim compensation for medical negligence related to the treatment of cancer you may be awarded compensation for the medical injuries as well as for psychological suffering faced. You may also be able to seek damages for financial costs incurred, such as the costs of treatment or lost income.

Negligence Claims Against A Dentist

You may have a qualifying claim for negligence against a dentist if you were harmed as a result of the way in which your dental care was provided to you. Dental negligence could include circumstances in which you have been left in pain, where an illness have been caused, where you have suffered cosmetic injuries or other forms of trauma. Incidents of clinical negligence in dental treatment may be situations where the wrong procedure was carried out, where a serious injury – such as to a nerve- has been caused, or where you contracted an illness due to a lack of hygiene by a dental practitioner.

Whether claiming for NHS negligence or against a private healthcare mistakes, our panel of solicitors or medical negligence lawyers could help you.

Statistics For Cases Of Clinical Negligence At NHS Trusts In Dorset

This article looks at both some of the common circumstances in which people could be harmed by medical negligence and at some of the healthcare providers providing services in Dorset where you could have experienced medical negligence. To help put all of this into some perspective, we have also included this table.

Here we look at the volume of claims which have been made against NHS trusts (such as the Dorset Hospitals University Foundation Trust). Our table looks at how many claims may have been made and how much has been paid out in compensation.

NHS Trust Or Relevant Healthcare AuthorityNo. of claims recievedNo. of reported incidentsCNST Damages Paid
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust27*2,996,140
Dorset HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust140518,168

This data related to the year 2017 – 2018. The source can be found here.

Hospitals In The County Of Dorset

Dorset sits on the English south coast, facing the English Channel. Spread across just over one thousand square miles, Dorset is home to the unitary authority of Dorset and town of Christchurch. It is also home to coastal towns such as Bournemouth and Poole. The counties population stands at just over 770,000 residents. With several towns and unitary authorities, there are also several hospital facilities spread across the county.

NHS Services

  • Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals.
  • Dorset County Hospital.
  • Christchurch Hospital, Dorset.
  • Westhaven Community Hospital.

Private Healthcare

  • BMI The Winterbourne Hospital.
  • BMI The Harbour Hospital.
  • Nuffield Health Bournemouth Hospital.

You could make a personal injury claim against any of these hospitals or operating authorities, such as the Dorset Hospitals University Foundation Trust. You could also make a claim against other health care providers in the public or private sectors.

No Win No Fee Clinical Negligence Claims Process

No win no fee agreements are a very well established method of funding personal injury claims and have been around since 1996. They have been and are offered by personal injury solicitors in a variety of different circumstances and they could be offered by solicitors in cases of Dorset medical negligence.

At the start of the no win no fee clinical negligence claims process, your solicitor may offer and discuss with you a variety of different ways in which you could fund your claim. People often choose to utilise no win no fee agreements because they remove any risk in making a claim. You can begin the no win no fee claims process without having to make a payment to the solicitor and (in general) there will be nothing to pay until you have been awarded a compensation settlement.

Talk To Our Team

Remember, you do not need to limit yourself to just consulting medical negligence solicitors in Dorset. Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Dorset area and they could assist you. In fact, wherever you are located in the country, we could be able to help you through a personal injury solicitor from our panel.

To start your no win no fee claim, you simply need to get in contact with our team. You could contact us by calling on 0800 652 3087 or get in touch using the contact form on this page. You could also start your claim today by clicking ‘claim online’ at the top of this page.

Dorset County Resources

Whilst we have endeavoured to provide as much information as possible for those looking for medical negligence solicitors in Dorset, we understand that you may still have questions. To help you learn more, we have included some related resources on our site below. We have also included information on some of the largest healthcare providers and authorities in the county of Dorset, such as hospitals, NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Medical Negligence Compensation Calculator Explained – Explaining how personal injury claims calculators are used in cases of medical negligence and how much people may be able to claim.

Pressure Sore / Bed Sore Negligence Claims – Bed sores could present in patients in a hospital or those in residential care if not adequately cared for.

Bournemouth Medical Negligence Claims – This is our guide to claiming compensation for medical negligence in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Dorset Healthcare – The Dorset HealthCare University NHS Trust

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – This the NHS trust operating a major hospital in Dorset.

Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group – Commissioning Clinical Services in this county.