Tag: healthcare barristers

What to do if you suspect medical negligence

If you feel that you’ve not received the optimum standard of care from a healthcare provider, you may have a case for medical negligence. An experienced legal firm of healthcare barristers will be able to advise you on whether you have good grounds for a claim.

Do you have grounds for a medical negligence claim?

A medical negligence action is likely to be successful if you can prove that a healthcare professional breached their duty of care to you resulting in damage or injury to your person. Common types of malpractice suits involve:

• cosmetic surgery mistakes
• surgical errors
• wrong or delayed diagnosis of serious conditions
• dental malpractice
• injury sustained during childbirth

Although many people pursue medical negligence claims in the hope of being awarded financial compensation, you could simply settle for an admission that the care you received was substandard and an apology.

In order to discern if a clinical case exists, you will need to establish the following criteria:

1. That there is a duty of care between you and your treating clinician. (This is never contested as there will always be a duty of care between healthcare professional and patient).

2. That the standard of care you received was insufficient and the duty of care has therefore been breached.

3. That as a direct consequence of the poor treatment you received, you have suffered pain, discomfort, or complications, which would not have occurred had the treatment been up to the expected standard. This is termed, ‘avoidable harm’.

What should you do if you think you have a medical negligence claim?

Medical negligence law is an extremely complex personal injury field. It’s therefore recommended that you seek advice from an experienced healthcare barrister. You’ll need to provide documentary evidence to support your claim. This evidence will include:

• written accounts of what happened, provided by you, your family, and any other witnesses involved

• access to your medical records

• details of prescriptions and receipts for any corrective medical treatment you have undergone in order to rectify the negligent treatment

• details of any loss of earnings or costs you have incurred as a result of the alleged negligence

Seek advice today

If you suspect that you have been the victim of medical negligence by a healthcare professional, you may be able to make a claim against them. Contact a healthcare barrister near you through Barristers4U for a free, no-obligation quote today.

Taking action with healthcare barristers

In the UK, we’re very lucky to have access to the National Health Service as well as private medical services. While most people receive good treatment via both private clinics and NHS providers, sometimes things do go wrong.

If a physician is negligent, for example, it can have catastrophic consequences. By failing to provide the right treatment, a doctor could potentially cause a fatality or subject a patient to additional treatment.

In some instances, this type of medical negligence can also cause patients to suffer long-term effects. Due to the severity of this, it’s important to take action if you’ve been the victim of a medical error. By seeking help from healthcare barristers, you can find out if you’ll be able to launch a medical negligence claim and, if so, what the likelihood of success is.

Obtaining compensation for medical negligence

When you take action with direct access barristers following a medical error, you may be able to obtain compensation. Whilst this won’t remedy the situation and give you back your health, it can provide practical help.

If medical negligence has left you unable to work, for example, public access barristers could help you to claim back the cost of your lost income and your future loss of earnings. While your health is always more important than your finances, money worries can cause a lot of stress.

By obtaining compensation with help from healthcare barristers, you can focus on recovery and dealing with any long-lasting symptoms, rather than worrying about your financial situation.

In addition to this, taking legal action with direct access barristers may increase awareness of medical negligence. In doing so, you could encourage healthcare providers to revise their existing regulations in order to ensure that no-one suffers in the same way you have.

Working with direct access barristers

When you take action with barristers direct, you can reduce the cost of obtaining legal assistance significantly. Rather than paying a solicitor and a barrister, you can simply talk to a public access barrister directly and obtain the help you need.

With over 1,000 experienced barristers providing direct access services, you should find it easy to access legal advice. To find out more, why not get in touch with a public access barrister today?