How can we help?

The medical negligence team at Wellers can help you understand whether you have a claim against a doctor or the NHS. We offer a free, no-obligation first meeting so that you can tell us about your treatment and we can work out whether your claim is likely to be successful. You can contact the team on 020 8290 7958 or email us. Alternatively, fill in our short online form and we will contact you.

What is Duty of Care?

All healthcare professionals have a duty of care to their patients. This is the practitioner’s legal obligation to safeguard patients from harm while in their care. If you go to see your doctor at a GP surgery or you are being treated or cared for in a hospital or other medical practice, there is a prescribed and legally recognisable level of care that must be met.

There are several types of claims which can be made in respect of healthcare and doctor failures and each is subject to a three-part test to establish whether negligence played a part in the causing of harm to the patient either through specific actions or inactions.

The test for negligence in claims against doctors, surgeons and medical professionals is as follows:

• Was the claimant owed a duty of care?
• Can a breach of that duty of care be established?
• Has legally recognised harm occurred as a result of that breach?

If your circumstances meet the above criteria, then it’s possible that we will be able to pursue a claim for you. Our medical negligence solicitors are extremely experienced and will be able to ascertain your likely chances of success so that you can decide whether you would like to proceed.

Types of GP negligence claim

There are numerous types of GP and Doctor failure, such as:

• Failure to diagnose
• Failure to examine
• Failure to organise appropriate testing
• Misdiagnosis
• Delayed treatment
• Prescribing the wrong medication
• Failure to provide or arrange treatment
• Failure to refer and referral errors
• Failure to act on information
• Failure to follow up or act upon test results
• Medical procedure irregularities

This list is not exhaustive and you may feel that you have suffered harm as a result of some other form of medical negligence. Contact Wellers today and we will discuss your circumstances.

Proving you have been harmed

Harm, in medical negligence claims, means physical and/or psychological damage; it can also encompass emotional damage, financial loss, loss of dignity or the loss of a legal right.

When making a claim for medical negligence compensation we have to prove that the harm you have suffered was caused by the actions or inactions of the medical professional or healthcare team responsible for your care. This is known as causation and it can be a very difficult and complex matter to prove.

For instance, you may feel your GP failed to examine you properly when you were feeling unwell and you later developed an illness which meant you could not go to work for six months. It would be up to you, and your medical negligence solicitors, to prove that your GP failed in his duty of care and this failure was the direct cause of your financial harm (in this case, loss of wages). If another GP agreed that the symptoms you presented to your GP in the first instance would have been inconclusive and that it could not have been foreseeable that these symptoms would lead to an illness which would cause you financial harm, then it is unlikely to be successful.