How To Claim Compensation For Medical Negligence In Hereford
Medical negligence Hereford
When searching for medical negligence solicitors in Hereford, you might be overwhelmed with difference choices and not know who to choose. This guide will aim to provide information about how to pick the right medical negligence lawyer to help with your claim. Choosing a solicitor with experience in negligence claims is essential as it can make a real difference to the amount of compensation that is awarded.
Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Hereford area and therefore could help you to make your claim. If you’d like to discuss a claim today, give us a call on 0800 652 3807. If you want more information before claiming, please carry on reading this guide.
Choose A Section
- How You Could Find A Medical Negligence Solicitor Covering Your Area
- Should You Claim Through A Local Medical Negligence Solicitor?
- Reviews Of Clinical Negligence Solicitors Could Help You To Choose
- Claims Clinical Negligence Solicitors Could Help You Make
- Our Expert Medical Panel Could Assess Your Injury In Herefordshire
- Birth Injury Claims
- Malpractice During Surgery
- Misdiagnosed Cancers
- Hospital Negligence
- Hospitals In Herefordshire
- GP Malpractice
- Nursing Home Neglect
- Dental Malpractice
- Instances Of Clinical Negligence In Herefordshire NHS
- No Win No Fee Solicitors Handling Negligent Medical Treatment
- Contact An Expert Today
- Additional Advice
How You Could Find A Medical Negligence Solicitor Covering Your Area
There are many ways to choose a medical negligence solicitor which might including reading reviews or speaking to others who’ve made claims recently. In this guide, we’ll provide you with more ways of selecting the right solicitor to take on your claim.
Before doing so, it’s important to have a negligence definition so you know whether you could make a claim or not. In short, for a personal injury solicitor to be able to make a claim you’ll need to have been made ill, suffered an injury or your existing condition made worse because a medical professional has provided you with substandard care.
Medical professionals include doctors, nurses, dentists, cosmetic surgeons, care workers, midwives, paediatricians and anaesthetists.
An important point when claiming for negligence or malpractice is that there is a personal injury claims time limit in the UK. You have 3 years from the date of the negligent act (or from the date you found out about it) to make your claim.
It’s advisable to contact a solicitor as soon as possible because, although 3 years seems like a long time, cases can take a while to prepare. Clinical negligence solicitors often have to use medical experts to prepare complex medical evidence which can take some time. Therefore, contact a solicitor early to allow them to prepare properly.
Should You Claim Through A Local Medical Negligence Solicitor?
You might think that it’s best to use local clinical negligence solicitors to make your claim, but we suggest it’s actually better to use a specialist personal injury solicitor who has experience of cases to yours.
In reality, where the solicitor is based isn’t important because you won’t ever need to visit their office. You’ll communicate over email, phone and letters in the post. Therefore, our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Hereford area and could help you with your claim.
We understand that you won’t want to travel far which is why we have medial experts all across the UK, including in Hereford. This means, when you need to attend a medical assessment (which is used to demonstrate the severity and impact of your injuries), you can do so locally.
Reviews Of Clinical Negligence Solicitors Could Help You To Choose
Using reviews of clinical negligence solicitors could provide a good insight into customer satisfaction levels of any solicitor you’re thinking of using. You can gauge whether previous clients were happy with the frequency of updates they received and, importantly, whether they were happy with any compensation they received.
After reading the reviews though, nothing beats actually speaking with the solicitor personally. You’ll get a much better feel for how well you can work with the solicitor when you speak with them than any review will be able to provide.
Claims Clinical Negligence Solicitors Could Help You Make
As mentioned earlier, if you’ve suffered in any way because of substandard care provided by a medical professional, you could seek compensation. In the coming sections we’ll provide examples of negligent acts which could lead to claims. Examples include GP malpractice, hospital negligence, negligent NHS treatment, dental malpractice and nursing home neglect.
Our Expert Medical Panel Could Assess Your Injury In Herefordshire
As mentioned previously, to save you travelling too far for a medical assessment, we have a panel of doctors and specialists in Hereford. Here is sample:
James Hampton
Wall Street,
Hereford, HR4 9HP.
Stephen Grant Charlesworth-Jones
Kyrle House Practice,
Kyrle Street,
Hereford, HR1 2EU.
Mohammed Safdar
The Royal National College for the Blind,
Venns Lane,
Hereford, HR1 1DT.
Birth Injury Claims
Visiting a maternity ward to give birth can be one of the happiest times of our lives. However, if the mother or baby is injured during labour, pregnancy or following the birth, one or both of their lives can be changed forever.
Examples of birth injuries which could lead to a claim include:
- Fissures or vaginal tears (mother).
- Cerebral Palsy (baby).
- Bruise and fractures (baby).
- Post-natal depression or post-natal traumatic stress disorder (mother).
- Anoxia and Hypoxia (baby).
- Infections (mother).
If you or your baby have suffered a birth injury, please call our team to discuss your options with regards to making a medical negligence claim.
Malpractice During Surgery
A surgeon will usually inform a patient of any risks associated with their surgery. This allows the patient to assess the risks and consent to the surgery. It doesn’t mean however, that the patient couldn’t make a personal injury claim for any injuries sustained during surgery, if they were caused by a negligent act.
Examples of surgical errors include:
- Items being left inside of the patient such as clamps, swabs or other surgical equipment.
- Damage caused to internal organs.
- Pain suffered due to an anaesthetic error.
- Complications caused by faulty surgical clips.
- Infections caused by poor hygiene in the theatre.
Misdiagnosed Cancers
One of the most worrying diagnoses that a patient can receive is one for any form of cancer. If caught early, many cancers are either treatable or manageable and the patient can have a good prognosis.
If the diagnosis is delayed or an incorrect misdiagnosis is made it can mean the patient suffers more because they don’t receive treatment in time. In some cases, a cancer which might’ve been cured becomes inoperable because of the delay, which could lead to the patient dying because of the delay.
If you, or a loved one, has suffered because a delay in receiving cancer treatment, please speak to one of our specialists today.
Hospital Negligence
If, following a stay in a hospital, you are injured, become ill or your condition is made worse because of some form of negligence, you could be entitled to make a compensation claim. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff have a duty of care to ensure your safety wherever possible. If they fail to meet that duty of care, then a claim might be possible.
Some examples of claims which might be possible include:
- Injuries caused by surgical mistakes.
- Illness or injury caused because a professional failed to follow correct procedure.
- If you become ill or your condition becomes worse because of the wrong medication being prescribed.
- If you contract an infection such as MRSA because of poor hygiene.
If you’ve suffered any form of NHS medical negligence while in a hospital (or a private hospital), you could begin a claim. Give us a call to discuss your options.
Hospitals In Herefordshire
For your information, here are some of the main hospitals that serve the Hereford area:
- The County Hospital Hereford (NHS).
- Bromyard Community Hospital (NHS).
- Leominster Community Hospital (NHS).
- Ross-on-Wye Community Hospital (NHS).
- Nuffield Health Private Hospital.
Our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors can cover the Hereford area so could help you if you have a claim against any of these hospitals.
GP Malpractice
While there is a lot of pressure on some GPs due to high numbers of patients and not lot of appointment time, if they make a mistake in diagnosis or treatment which causes a patient to suffer, then a medical negligence claim might be possible.
Some reasons why a patient might be able to claim against a GP include:
- A late diagnosis meaning they suffered because they didn’t receive treatment.
- Misdiagnosis which meant they suffered because they were receiving the wrong treatment.
- Incorrect medicine being prescribed or the wrong dosage.
Nursing Home Neglect
Nursing home staff are obliged to meet the minimum accepted levels of care for the, sometimes, vulnerable, patients in their care. If they fail to meet their duty of care because of any form of negligence, then the patient could claim against them if they have suffered because of the negligent act.
Here are some reasons where a claim against a nursing home might be possible:
- Pressure sores or bed sores because the patient hasn’t been moved regularly enough.
- Illnesses caused when medication hasn’t been dispensed properly.
- Injuries sustained while a patient was being lifted or moved (if the correct methods weren’t used).
- Any form of care home abuse.
Dental Malpractice
Dentists, dental nurses and hygienist are also classed as medical professionals and, as such, if they make an error, mistake or fail to follow proper procedures, a claim for medical negligence could be made against them.
If you’ve suffered excessive pain during surgery due to insufficient anaesthetic, were injured during a procedure or you underwent a procedure which wasn’t needed, you could be eligible to make a claim. Please speak to one of our advisors for free legal advice.
Instances Of Clinical Negligence In Herefordshire NHS
The table below outlines the number of claims made against the NHS in Worcester which might care for some patients in the Hereford area.
| Healthcare Provider | Claims in 2017/2018 | Number of Incidents 2017/2018 | Damages Payments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 73 | 5 | £12,803,364 |
| Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust | 9 | * | £1,529,836 |
Source: NHS Fact sheet
No Win No Fee Solicitors Handling Negligent Medical Treatment
If you’re worried about the cost of making a compensation claim, then you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s common to be offered a no win no fee service. Our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors all offer no win no fee for cases they take on.
When you begin a claim, the solicitor will assess your claim in a free initial consultation. If they believe you have a good chance of winning your claim, they’ll prepare a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA or no win no fee agreement).
The CFA will outline:
- The fact that you don’t pay the solicitor up front and you don’t pay them at all if they fail to win the case.
- The success fee you’ll pay if they win the case. Success fees are limited by law to 25% of your compensation and might be less.
When a case is won, the compensation is sent to the solicitor. They retain their agreed success fee then send the rest directly to you. This method means you don’t need to find the funds to pay the solicitor yourself.
Contact An Expert Today
If you’d like to discuss beginning a claim today, then you can get in touch with us by calling 0800 652 3087 or by filling in this online form. If we believe you have a good chance of winning compensation, we’ll introduce you to one of our panel of medical negligence solicitors who can cover the Hereford area.
Additional Advice
To help you further, we’ve linked to some useful resources below:
Wye Valley NHS Trust Inspection Report – The most recent report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the NHS trust that covers Hereford.
Find A Care Home – If you need to find a care home, then this site can help. It includes information from recent inspections of the care homes too.
GP Medical Negligence Claims – A guide about medical negligence claims that can be made against your local GP.
Hospital Negligence Claims – This guide provides a more detailed look at the times of negligence claims that could be made following an injury or illness sustained in a hospital.
Claiming for a Misdiagnosis – A more detailed look at what a misdiagnosis is and when it could lead to a compensation claim.