The term ‘medical negligence’ (often referred to as clinical negligence) is a breach of duty of medical care that you have received whereby, as a result, you have incurred injury or illness.

So you entrusted yourself to the doctor or nurse, thinking that you would get the best medical and nursing care. Isn’t that what the NHS or private care is about?

Later, when you came round from your operation, something felt wrong. You just knew, but didn’t dare suggest, that something had gone wrong that should not have done, and you suspect it was due to medical negligence.

You would like some advice and an explanation but aren’t sure who you should talk to. Who will listen? Your GP will probably dismiss it and the hospital consultant will talk medical jargon and fob you off. All these medics will stick together, surely, and you will be left feeling helpless.

As time passes and your injury affects you more, or gets worse, it plays on your mind; you begin to wonder if you could be entitled to make a compensation claim. Perhaps a medical negligence lawyer could help you? You are convinced the injury was caused by a breach in standards of duty during the course of your treatment. You’re not certain, but you think that the anaesthetist might be the one to blame.

Surely this was clinical negligence? Yet no-one seems prepared to listen. You feel foolish and uneducated and everyone thinks you’re ‘just imagining it’.

Well, it’s a long list. Medical negligence claims can arise out of anaesthetics, cancer treatment, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, gastroenterology, general practice, keyhole surgery, mental health treatments, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, plastic surgery, psychiatry, radiology, radiography, sterilisation, urology, vascular surgery and many more.

Personal injuries may also include brain damage, psychological injury or nervous shock. In extreme cases, death can occur in any one of these clinical speciality areas of medicine.

There is someone who can, and will, listen – and take your case seriously. That person is a trained medical negligence solicitor who is specially qualified to handle this emotional and sensitive area of law.

If you aren’t sure whether medical standards have been breached, or would like someone to look into your case, talk to an experienced medical negligence solicitor. This professional will guide you through what may be a long and difficult process, requiring medical examination, review of your personal medical notes and, possibly, fierce cross examination by a barrister acting for you in Court.

Related Medical Coding Articles