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

Medical negligence Taunton

Medical negligence Taunton

Are you searching for medical negligence solicitors in Taunton to make a personal injury claim after harm caused by a medical professional? If so this guide could help you to learn more about the process of finding a solicitor as well as provide more information about medical negligence in general.

Before we look at anything else, we first need to establish what clinical or medical negligence is. In this guide we shall use the terms medical negligence, clinical negligence and malpractice synonymously. When we use such terms we are referring to circumstances where a physician or healthcare professional has provided care which fails to meet the required and expected standards and (crucially for being able to make a claim) where harm was caused to a patient as a result.

Whether affected by private healthcare negligence, NHS negligence, or any other form of medical negligence in Somerset, you may understandably have a strong feeling of injustice. After all, the people that are most trusted with people’s health are medical practitioners.

If you have been affected by clinical or medical negligence, contact our team today.

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How To Choose A Solicitor For A Taunton Somerset Clinical Negligence Claim

If you have been victim to Taunton medical negligence, one of the most important things which you could do to help you secure compensation is to choose the right person to handle your claim. When you are making any type of personal injury claim, it could be beneficial for you to claim with a solicitor who has specialist knowledge and experience both in medical negligence claims and in cases which pertain to similar circumstances to yours. Questions to help you evaluate a solicitor include;

  1. How much experience do they have in conducting similar cases?
  2. How will your case and the solicitors’ fees be funded?
  3. Could they organise for you to have a medical examination?

To give people the best chance of making a successful claim, we have a panel of expert medical negligence solicitors who could help you.

Do I Have To Claim With A Taunton Solicitor?

The simplest answer to this question no. There is nothing which says you are restricted to only choosing between solicitors in your local area. Whilst there may be several legal firms or individual solicitors in your area, this does not automatically mean that you have to or should make your claim for clinical negligence in Somerset with them.

Because of the nature of medical claims they may take longer to conduct and will likely involve some knowledge of medical terminology and matters. This makes the background of your solicitor much more important. If they have handled similar claims in the past or specialise in medical claims they could bring additional benefits to you as a claimant.

Our Panel Of Doctors Could Assess Your Injuries In Somerset

We hope above that we have illustrated why you do not need to claim through medical negligence solicitors in Taunton. However, one part of the claims process from which you may benefit from a local service is a medical examination. After an injury or during an illness you may simply be unable to travel a long distance to be assessed by a doctor. This is why we work with a panel of doctors from across the country.

The purpose of the examination is to identify the harm caused to you (through illness or injury) and then to assess the impact that this has already had and will have on you. This information could help your personal injury solicitor to better construct your claim.

Our panel of medical negligence solicitors may use the following doctors, though your individual assessment may be carried out at a different location or by a different physician.

Simon Wearne
St John’s Physiotherapy,
4 St John’s Road,
Taunton,
TA1 4AZ

Laura Sanchez Pallares
13-14 Priorswood Place,
Eastwick Road,
Taunton ,
TA2 7JW

Compare Medical Negligence Solicitors Covering Your Area

Your claim is probably important to you and as such you will likely want to make your claim with someone who is experienced and whom you are comfortable with. Your first act may be to go online and search for ‘medical negligence solicitors reviews’ to build up a picture of things to look out for.

You could also ask a solicitor whether they have any client testimonials which you could view and even how long the firm has existed for or how long they have practiced this area of law.

Medical Mistakes And Negligence Claims You Could Make

Medical negligence could be caused if medical staff deviate from the correct procedures, if they are careless, or if errors are made that cause a patient to be unnecessarily harmed. Our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors are able to conduct a very wide range of different medical claims. In this article, we look at some common forms of medical claims in a little bit of detail, but the list is not exhaustive.

If errors or mistakes are caused in the following areas patients could suffer due to negligence;

  • Prescription and medication errors.
  • Cauda Equina.
  • Gynecological care.
  • Medical/ surgical never events.
  • Cosmetic surgery or cosmetic dentistry.
  • Negligent Diabetes treatment.
  • Claims for Sepsis

Our panel of medical negligence solicitors can cover the Taunton area and could assist with claims for different forms of medical negligence. Negligence alone will not be enough for a case to qualify for compensation the victim of negligence must have been caused harm as a result.

Injuries Caused By Surgical Negligence

Whilst no surgical procedure comes without risk, patients have the right to expect that any and all risks are fully explained to them and that steps are taken to mitigate said risks as much as possible. What is and should be unacceptable are circumstances where a surgeon or member of the surgical team has caused you harm through their own negligent action.

A personal injury solicitor could help you claim compensation for surgical errors such as,

  • Operations having been carried out on the wrong body part – wrong site surgery.
  • The wrong operation being carried out on you.
  • Operations being carried out using the wrong equipment or faulty equipment.
  • Surgical staff leaving an object inside your body.
  • Damage to the internal organs.

Medical negligence in surgical procedures could present in different ways and this list is not exhaustive if you need more medical negligence advice please do not hesitate to  call our advisors.

Birth Injuries Caused By Negligence

Birth injury claims may be made on behalf of the mother or the child for harm which has been caused by negligent medical practices. In some instances, both parties may have been harmed, such as through a traumatic birth. Negligence could include doctors or other medical staff failing to spot the symptoms leading up to premature labour and harm being caused as a result. If symptoms of pre-eclampsia, pregnancy diabetes, heart defects in a foetus and other illnesses which need to be diagnosed at an early stage receive a late diagnosis or a misdiagnosis and cause unnecessary harm being suffered it maybe classed as negligence.

In some of the most serious instances of birth injuries the child may be caused to develop conditions such as cerebral palsy. In such cases, the child will have a life-long condition.

If you have experienced Somerset clinical negligence leading to a serious birth injury, you could seek compensatory damages.

Dental Injuries Caused By Negligence

If you feel and could show that the dental treatment which you received (whether from a dentist, dental nurse or surgeon) was negligent and harmful to you, you may be able to make a medical accident claim. It is worth contacting a medical negligence solicitor to find out if you are indeed eligible to seek damages.

It does not matter whether you were being treated through the NHS or in receipt of care as a private patient, you still have the same rights and are entitled to expect the same duty of care. If standards of dental care were not met and if you were harmed because of this, it may be worth discussing your options to make a claim with our panel of expert medical negligence solicitors covering the Taunton area.

Care Home Injuries Or Illness Caused By Negligence

Whilst the standards of care in some nursing and care facilities across the UK are to a satisfactory standard and vulnerable or elderly people are receiving minimum standard of care, in some other facilities the standard of care is far below what is needed to keep residents safe.

Common reasons for needing to make a care home negligence claim could include, patients or residents suffering from a bed sore or pressure sore due to staff not moving residents enough; administrative errors where a patient is not to be given the right medication which causes them to become ill or injuries which are caused by falls due to staff who are moving patients that are not trained how to do so correctly.

Misdiagnosed Cancer

Diseases such as some cancers will progress through several stages if they are not caught in time or are left without treatment. Sometimes cancer shows early symptoms so it is possible for some sufferers to be diagnosed at an early stage. If the early signs of the disease are not taken seriously by a doctor, the treatment needed could be more invasive and treatment options may be narrowed. Negligent delays to getting a correct diagnosis or course of treatment could affect the outcome of your overall cancer care. In the most serious of cases the patients cancer may not be diagnosed in enough time for treatment to be effective at all and it could be fatally harmful. If you have experienced cancer medical negligence in Somerset and it caused you to suffer more than you should have, you could be able to claim compensation for the harm caused.

Injuries Caused By GP Negligence

GP’s and the staff at their practice owe you a duty of care. NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence produce guidelines which set out how GP’s should act. Things in the guidelines include recommendations as to how and when a patient should be referred for specialist care or testing. If a GP fails to follow these guidelines negligence could be caused and such negligence could result in you being harmed.

Types of GP negligence could include failing to act on test results, not diagnosing an illness or misdiagnosing an illness for something else, if a condition is not treated accordingly it may worsen over time and cause more severe complications. .

Injuries Caused By Hospital Negligence

Have you been harmed due to medical negligence at a hospital? Have you experienced Musgrove Park hospital negligence? Are you seeking a Bath and Somerset hospital negligence payout? If you have been injured negligently at a hospital because medical staff have breached their duty of care towards you, maybe they have provided you with a substandard service that has caused you harm, maybe through negligence they completely missed calculated your symptoms and misdiagnosed you, if a medical practitioner of the same caliber would have not caused the harm you may have a case for hospital negligence. In the UK most hospital care will be of a very high standard, but if on occasions, these standards slip and harm is caused to a patient as a result it maybe deemed as negligence. Hospital care negligence could present as,

  • Not taking account of the patient’s medical history.
  • Not carrying out appropriate testing.
  • Not interpreting test results properly.
  • Not conducting a proper and full examination of a patient’s symptoms.

Hospitals In Taunton And Somerset

Taunton is a large town in Somerset and has a population of approximately 69,570. There are various medical facilities in Taunton itself as well as those close-by in other parts of Somerset. Below we look at some of the different medical facilities, such as NHS hospitals and private hospitals serving the town’s population.

NHS hospital facilities

  • Musgrove Park Hospital.

Private medical facilities

  • Nuffield Health Taunton Hospital.
  • Cygnet Hospital Taunton.

Note, if you have experienced harm caused by negligent medical care at a facility or practice which is not listed above do not worry, please call our team for further advice.

Data For Claims Against NHS Trusts In Somerset

Below you will find data illustrating how prevalent rates of medical and clinical negligence claims are in the Taunton area of Somerset. The data is presented in a table to make it clear and easy to see.

NHS Trust Or Relevant Healthcare AuthorityNo. of claims recievedNo. of reported incidentsCNST Damages Paid
Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust25*8,052,605

Data in this table is published on an annual basis by the body NHS Resolution. You can find the relevant release of data for 2017 – 2018 here.

No Win No Fee Claims For Medical Negligence Suffered In Taunton

If you do wish to make a medical accident claim with a medical negligence solicitor you may be concerned with how you will fund your claim. The easiest and most convenient way for many claimants to do so is often through a no win no fee agreement. By making your claim in this way you will not be expected to make any upfront payments to the solicitor. You will also not be expected to pay your solicitors fees in the event that your claim is not successful. If you are successful and are awarded damages, then the solicitors’ fees could be paid from this. Typically, they will be set as a percentage of your final settlement. This will have been agreed with you so there are no nasty surprises and the percentage is limited by law.

To find out more about how claims for medical negligence in Somerset could be funded, contact our team.

Start Your Claim

You could make a medical negligence claim for harm experienced either by yourself or by another person if they are unable to claim for themselves if you have suffered due to medical negligence. You should note that whilst our offices (and our panel of solicitors) are not located in Taunton or Somerset, this will in no way affect your compensation claim. To find out whether or not you could make a personal injury claim for harmful medical care, talk to our team.

  • Talk over your options to make a claim and do so with a no win no fee agreement by calling 0800 652 3087.
  • Start your claim online by filling in our simple form.
  • Use our simple contact form on this page.

The team at Medical Negligence Assist are here seven days a week between 8am and 9pm.

Helpful Resources

This guide will have provided you with all we think you need to know if you are considering making a medical negligence claim for harm caused in Taunton. We have also explained how our panel of expert solicitors could help you to seek damages. For further reading we have also included the following references.

Musgrove Park Hospital
Parkfield Drive,
Taunton,
TA1 5DA
Web: www.musgroveparkhospital.nhs.uk

Somerset Council Social Care And Health Services
Information and resources on social and healthcare as provided by Somerset County Council.

Brain Injury Negligence Claims
If you have suffered a head injury or a brain injury as a result of negligent medical care this guide could provide you with more specific information on making a claim.

Edited by LisM.