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

Medical negligence Durham

Medical negligence Durham

There may be different reasons why you are searching for a medical negligence solicitor in Durham. You may have been harmed due to medical treatment or healthcare which either you have received, or the way in which someone for whom you are responsible has been treated by medical professionals. If you or someone else has been avoidably harmed due to the way in which medical care has been dispensed to you, and you feel that the service was far below what you expected you may have been the victim of medical negligence.

In brief, clinical or medical negligence describes circumstances in which a medical professional (such as a doctor, dentist or midwife) responsible for your care has breached their duty of care to you. This could have been through careless actions or general negligence. The crucial criteria in such instances is that this breach directly caused you some form of harm.

If you have been harmed by negligent care from a medical professional our panel of solicitors could help you to get the compensation you deserve. To find out more, please read our guide below and contact us for further information.

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Guide To Choosing The Right Clinical Negligence Solicitor

This guide has been created to help you find the right solicitor for your claim and to explore in some detail different forms of medical negligence in which people may be harmed and for which they may search for medical negligence solicitors in Durham.

Things which we recommend that people consider when choosing a solicitor to handle their claim include the following:

  1. Look at their experience in conducting similar cases and circumstances.
  2. Don’t worry about their location.
  3. Find a solicitor and firm who you are comfortable dealing with. They will be privy to sensitive medical information so you need to be comfortable with them having access to this.
  4. Look at recommendations and reviews written by previous clients.
  5. Ask if they could offer you services through a conditional fee agreement.

We shall now look in a little more detail at some of the factors you should or should not take into account

Read Client Testimonials And Reviews For Solicitors

Reading different testimonials, medical negligence solicitors reviews or getting recommendations of friends and family could be a useful way to compare and contrast different law firms and personal injury solicitors. These may be an important way for you to differentiate between these services. Certain solicitors may have a higher profile or very eye-catching marketing campaigns, but, remember to drill down beneath this. Look at the underlying experience and expertise that they have. Have they helped people in similar situations to get compensation in similar circumstances? If so, they may have a better chance of successfully handling your claim.

Do Claimants Have To Use Local Medical Negligence Solicitors?

A commonly held idea is that you either have to or at least should use a solicitor who is based close to where you live, where you work, or where you sustained your injury. In fact, a commonly searched for team when looking for someone to handle your claim is ‘medical negligence solicitors near me’.

When you are engaging in using professional services such as a personal injury lawyer the most important criteria you should look for is their experience, knowledge, and their ability to conduct your case. Where they are based will have no effect on how they conduct your claim. They will be able to use a variety of means to keep in contact with you as easily as if they were located around the corner.

Could I Have A Medical Checkup In My Area?

Whilst it is not important to engage a personal injury solicitor in your area, there may be some parts of your claim which do benefit from being carried out closer to you. Namely, any medical assessments or examinations which are necessary to your claim.

We recognise that travelling a long distance may not be possible when you are injured or ill and so our panel of experts work with a panel of doctors and medical experts across the country. The closest experts to the Durham area are,

Ian Watson
Evans Business Incubation Centre,
Durham Way South,
Newton Aycliffe,
County Durham,
DL5 6XP

Guy Stevenson
Durham Marriott Hotel Royal County,
Old Elvet,
Durham ,
DH1 3JN

Ian Kerss
Old Pit Physiotherapy Practice,
61 Front Street,
Durham ,
DH1 5DE

Your medical examination may be carried out by one of the experts above, or by another experts. The report from the medical expert may be used as evidence in your claim, citing the nature and extent of your injury or illness. It may also be used to assess what the likely long term effects (if any) may be.

Medical Negligence Cases Our Team Could Handle

Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Durham area and are able to conduct a plethora of different types of clinical negligence claims. These may include:

  • Negligent brain injuries and brain damage.
  • Wrong site operations or amputations.
  • A&E errors.
  • Cosmetic surgery or botox injury claims.
  • Orthopedic injuries.
  • Errors in prescription medications.
  • Bed sores in a hospital or nursing home facility.
  • Misdiagnosing a stroke.
  • Delays in treatment or diagnosis.
  • Unnecessary operations.
  • Negligence in c-section deliveries.
  • Negligence in medical follow-ups to operations or long-term conditions.

In the subsequent sections we shall look in some detail at some of examples of types of claims handled by no win no fee medical negligence solicitors. In order to pursue any claim for damages it must be shown that the negligent act caused harm, maybe an injury, an illness or the current condition got worse, negligence alone will not lead to a compensation claim.

Surgical Negligence Compensation

The majority of people who undergo surgery will have minor concerns or worries, but these issues will probably be to do with the risks that have been mentioned by the surgeon. Patients are not anticipating harm caused due to negligence as they put all their trust in the surgeons to deliver a successful operation. In essence surgical negligence is an umbrella term covering all circumstances in which a patient could be negligently harmed due to the substandard service and care in either pre-operative care, an operation itself, or post-operative care.

Careless actions during an operation could lead to additional injuries such as perforations, organ damage, damage to nerves or even the wrong operation being carried out. In extreme and dramatic instances the wrong limb may be amputated. Such instances are termed ‘never events’. You could learn more about them in this NHS PDF guide.

Traumatic Birth Injuries

Birth injuries could happen to either the child or to the mother. Injuries could happen during the pregnancy, the delivery of a child, or in the immediate aftercare of both parties if medical staff deviate from the correct procedures, are careless, negligent, offer a service that is below the minimum standard. Whilst it is common that mothers or newborn babies may suffer some minor injuries, such as bruises or swelling, such injuries should naturally heal in a short space of time and are generally not caused through any negligent act. More serious complications or injuries that could be caused by medical errors may include:

  1. Failing to prevent infections or to treat them.
  2. Preventable complications during induced labour.
  3. Negligence or carelessness during a c-section delivery.
  4. Carelessness during difficult births.
  5. Not identifying potentially dangerous conditions like heart defects.
  6. Not spotting potentially dangerous conditions such as hypoxia.

If you or your baby were avoidably harmed, injured, caused a preventable illness due to medical negligence in the UK, please speak to our expert team.

Harm Caused By A Care Or Nursing Home

Nursing homes are entrusted to provide care to some of the most vulnerable people in society. Residents, such as elderly patients, may be heavily reliant upon care home staff to provide round the clock assistance. As such there may be different ways in which care home residents could be harmed and some such forms may have a very serious effect on residents health if care home staff do not always strive to maintain minimum standards, in any situation where standards fall or are poor the potentially for harm to be caused is present. Harm could be caused through,

  • Medication errors, such as dispensing the wrong type of medication.
  • Bed sores caused by not properly moving a resident.
  • Neglecting a residents basic needs.
  • Neglect of basic hygiene leading to infection.
  • Mistakes in handling a patient.

If the above happens but it happens because of error, negligence, mistakes and care home resident are harmed as a result a case for care home negligence maybe valid. Care home residents may be unable to make a negligence claim on their own behalf for a variety of reasons. Family members or friends could make claims through no win no fee medical negligence solicitors on behalf of a care home resident.

General Practice Medical Negligence

General Practice doctors are often the gateway to the health service. They are a first port of call when we feel ill and are relied upon to provide people with any necessary recommendations for specialist care or testing. The failure to carry out the right examinations, tests or to make specialist referrals could lead to a patient being significantly harmed.

Other ways in which patients may be harmed by and be eligible to claim damages for GP negligence might include,

  • The provision of incorrect treatment or medication.
  • Diagnostic delays causing delays to treatments.
  • Not visiting a patient at home who required examination.
  • Losing records which cause problems with diagnosis and/ or treatment.
  • General accidents.

If the above has happened and you have been harmed by such negligence, maybe your current condition worsened due to lack of diagnosis and treatment please contact our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors who can offer advice in regards to GP negligence.

Hospital Medical Negligence In The NHS And Private Sector

Whilst most hospitals and their staff will meet the high standards that patients in the UK should expect them to, if there are instances where such standards are not met patients may suffer. In such instances hospital negligence may cause harm to patients. Ways in which negligence could happen and duty of care be breached might include,

  • Complications arising from incorrect dosages of anaesthetics.
  • Errors during the provision of treatment, such as during testing or operations.
  • Errors in the provision of medication, such prescription errors.
  • Diagnostic delays and misdiagnosis.
  • Needle-stick injuries.

If you were avoidably harmed whilst under the care of either an NHS or private hospital in the wider Durham area, you could be able to seek NHS compensation or damages from the company responsible.

Late Or Misdiagnosed Cancers

The misdiagnosis of an illness such as cancer could lead to a patient being provided with incorrect care and medication. Such actions, and delays to getting the right care could have a devastating effect on a patient who has a form of cancer. Cancer is a time-bound condition meaning the longer it goes untreated the worse (and thus harder to treat it may become). In some instances not getting a timely diagnosis or beginning the correct treatment much later could have a fatal effect on a patient.

Whilst standards of oncological care are extremely high in both the private sector and NHS there is no room for errors to be made. If you have been harmed by negligence during the course of your cancer treatment, speak to an expert today.

What Is Considered Malpractice By A Dentist?

As with other instances where a medical negligence lawyer could assist you, you may require one to make dental negligence claim. Ways in which patients may be harmed by dental negligence may include any of the following.

  • Diagnostic delays. Illness or problems need to be identified early enough for appropriate measures to be taken. If there are diagnostic errors or delays, the condition may worsen and treatment may be less effective.
  • Misdiagnosed conditions. In the same way in which delays could cause a problem to get worse or affect treatment outcomes, so could your dental issue being misdiagnosed cause harm.
  • Careless or incorrect treatments. If a dental practitioner acts carelessly and removes the wrong tooth you may find you are harmed.
  • Substandard care. If dental treatments are carried out poorly you may suffer further injury or harm.

This is not a complete list of the ways in which negligent practices by a dentist or dental staff could cause patients harm. If you have been affected in another way please do not hesitate to contact our panel of medical lawyers and solicitors.

Instances Of Medical Negligence By Darlington And County Durham NHS Trusts

The NHS in England keeps annual accounts and records of instances of medical negligence which have happened at both NHS Trust and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) across the country. Along with the number of incidents and cases this data also records the value of payments made in a given year. To help illustrate rates of NHS negligence in this area we have included the publicly available data for these trusts.

NHS Trust Or Relevant Healthcare AuthorityNo. of claims recievedNo. of reported incidentsCNST Damages Paid
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust108612,124,044

Full information related to the volume of clinical negligence claims made against various NHS trusts and CCG’s across England is published annually in the NHS Factsheet Five. The latest release for the year 2017/ 2018 is available here.

County Durham Hospital Facilities

The city of Durham is both a city and the county town for the county of Durham. As a city and a county town, Durham medical facilities serve both the city itself as well as smaller towns and villages around it. It should also be noted that as Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees are also all close by, people may also access healthcare in these areas if necessary. Hospitals and clinical facilities in Durham include the following.

NHS hospitals

  • University Hospital Of North Durham
  • Lancaster Road Hospital
  • Durham Community Hospital
  • Hundens Lane Day Hospital

Private hospitals & clinics

  • Spire Washington Hospital
  • BMI Woodlands Hospital
  • Belmont Dental Practice

If you have experienced NHS negligence or harm caused by a private healthcare provider you may be searching for medical negligence solicitors in Durham. Remember, you do not need to use a solicitor based here and that our team could help you.

No Win No Fee Durham Medical Malpractice Claims

When you are searching for medical negligence solicitors in Durham one of your main concerns may be how you will fund your claim. In the majority of cases handled by our panel of medical negligence solicitors they are able to offer claimants a no win no fee agreement. This means that clients are able to pursue a personal injury claim without needing to worry about costs.

Through this type of agreement, if you do not win a compensation settlement, you will not be required to pay any costs or fees to your solicitor. For many people, this could give you peace of mind in how you will pay for your personal injury solicitors services. What you will need to keep in mind, and which will be fully explained to you, is that if you do win your case you will have to pay for your solicitor. This is usually agreed prior to your signing a contract with them and is commonly calculated as a percentage of your settlement.

Talk To An Expert Today

When you contact our team for legal assistance we will listen to what has happened to you and offer sensitive recommendations on what action you could take. We will make sure that we handle your case with the care it deserves and that our panel of medical negligence solicitors are able to provide you with the best possible help.

There are several ways in which you could get in contact with our team.

  • You could call us for an initial consultation today on 0800 652 3087.
  • You could click ‘claim online’ to get started.
  • Use the quick and easy contact form above.

Whilst we are not based in Durham, our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Durham area and our team are ready to answer your call today.

Advice And CQC Information

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

After reading this guide you may wish to learn more about the regulation and provision of healthcare in England as well as other ways in which our team could assist you. As such, we have recommended these reference materials.

Medical Compensation Claims
This is one of our more general guides to making a personal injury claim with a medical negligence solicitor. You could learn more about the process of making a claim here.

Care Quality Commission – County Durham
Information from the CQC related to the provision of healthcare services in County Durham.

CQC Ratings – Durham & Darlington NHS Trust
In this Care Quality Commission guide, you could find ratings information for the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust serving this area.

NHS Patient Rights
Learn more about your patient rights to choose between your treatment options when under the care of the NHS in this guide for patients.

Edited by LisM.