It does not matter if you are being treated in a NHS hospital or a private hospital, you have the right to expect to be cared for in a proper manner, without mistakes being made that can make you worse.
You should be cared for in a way that supports your needs, in a clean and safe place, protected from infections. The staff caring for you should have the right skills to deal with your particular problem, and be able to dispense medication to you as and when it is needed. Gone are the wards of 50 years ago that had 30 plus patients in them. Now they are much smaller, so it should be a lot easier for you to have some privacy. These are just some of the basics you should expect from any hospital stay.
Sometimes things go wrong in hospitals though, and if you are a patient who has had a mistake made with diagnosis or treatment that has made your condition worse, or created a new illness, you may be entitled to compensation. Then you will need to speak with the best medical negligence solicitors you can find.Â
Hospital Mistakes That Could Result in a Medical Negligence Claim
It is not unusual for doctors to work some of their time in an NHS hospital and spend some of their time working in a private hospital, so you could see the same one wherever you go. Just like doctors, time can be spread between the two, so can nurses and other medical professionals. Â Codes of practice, rules and regulations are similar as well, so if a mistake has been made in your diagnosis or treatment it could have been in either.
The sorts of things that could go wrong include:
- Errors while undergoing surgery. This could be damaged organs, or even the amputation of the wrong limb. How heart-breaking would it be losing a leg anyway, but if the wrong one is removed and the other one still has to be amputated, you would be devastated and your life would never be the same again. You would definitely have to contact medical negligence lawyers.
- Mistakes when prescribing or dispensing medicines. You could be on the mend after your hospital treatment and then be given the wrong medication. This could make you more ill than you were to start with, and prolong your hospital stay.
- Misdiagnosis leading to incorrect treatment. Misdiagnosing your illness, delaying referring you for the correct treatment or inadequate testing could all cause problems if the illness you have is life threatening. We all know that the earlier cancer is treated, the more chance there is of beating the disease, so unnecessary and unwarranted delays could mean you should be making medical negligence claims.These are just a drop in the ocean of the things you might need to speak with medical negligence solicitors for. Just imagine how many patients and different treatments hospitals deal with every year and you will realise how varies and complex a medical negligence claim can be.Â
Will You Qualify to Make a Claim?
To qualify for compensation, the medical negligence has to have taken place within the three years before you start your claim, in the majority of cases. As with most British law there are sometimes exceptions to the rule, but the easy way to find out if you qualify for compensation is to have a no obligation chat with a friendly legal advisor. Companies like The Medical Negligence Experts  work on this no obligation rule and will give you all the information you need so that you can make the decision yourself. They will be able to answer your questions and put your mind at ease that you have chosen the right firm to assist you with your claim for compensation.Â
How Much Will the Compensation Be?
This is a question that no one can guarantee at this stage of a claim. There are so many different aspects to be considered. Every victim, every case of medical negligence and every claim is unique because of the personal circumstances of the injured party. The way your life is affected is part of the calculation for compensation, and two people who have had exactly the same mistreatment, could be awarded differing amounts because of this. One could have to pay extra childcare costs, where the other one’s children could be all grown, so caring for them is not an issue. One could live over the road from the hospital, and the other live 20 miles away and have travelling costs. There could be extra medication costs or a piece of medical equipment might be required. There is an endless list of things that have to be accounted for when you make a medical negligence claim.
It’s always best to get legal help if you feel medical negligence has taken place.
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