What Is Medical Malpractice?
When you visit a GP, go into hospital for treatment or even visit the dentist you would expect to be in safe hands. However, sometimes things can go wrong. Fortunately, medical accidents are much lower than the successes but when things do go wrong they can be fatal. Medical malpractice is the professional negligence by or omission by a trained healthcare worker and as a result a patient becomes injured or dies. Most situations involving patient and doctor interaction are beneficial to the patient’s health, but there are the odd occasions when a professional will fail to carry out a duty of care towards a patient and the result can be devastating.
The injustices that surround being a victim of medical malpractice can be very traumatic for both the patient and their families. The feeling of being left helpless and vulnerable can have a huge emotional impact on a person and should be avoided at all costs. Whilst compensation can help to pay for medical fees, loss of any earnings and any unnecessary stress and pain caused directly by the accident; it cannot entirely make up for the traumatic experience a person goes through.
Of course medical practitioners are only human and mistakes can happen. But they should take care to be extra vigilant and stringently adhere to specially designed procedures and health and safety guidelines. After all, they do literally have someone’s life in their hands. Their mistakes could be the difference between life and death and should not be treated lightly.
Accidents that involve medical care can include a range of different situations. For example, doctors can fail to make a correct diagnosis or make an incorrect diagnosis. Or the diagnosis could be delayed. This could lead to incorrect treatment or a complete failure to administer treatment until too late. These are potentially fatal situations. When the treatment has been decided upon, then it is the responsibility of the administrator to inform the patient of the risks that are associated with the treatment. For example, any potential side effects must be drawn attention to. During treatment, medication errors can occur, careless surgical procedures and delayed referral to specialists can cause injuries that otherwise would not have been sustained.
Negligence can also arise out of system errors in the hospital where the treatment took place.
A claim against a medical professional for injuries arising out of a medical accident can be quite different from claiming after a road traffic accident or a workplace claim. This is because a claim for medical malpractice is not as straightforward as being able to establish blame immediately. In order to succeed in a clinical negligence claim then you must be able to prove, through the evidence of trained medical experts that there were serious errors in your medical treatment which no competent doctor would have made. You also must be able to prove that those errors caused or materially contributed to, the injury that you are complaining of.
If you think that you have a case claim for medical negligence then contact Accident Consult today for more information. They will be able to provide you with impartial and professional advice on the best way to pursue your claim. They operate a ‘No Win No Fee’ service so there really is nothing to lose when you make a claim.
Tags: correct diagnosis, duty of care, emotional impact, incorrect diagnosis, life and death, medical accidents, medical fees, medical malpractice, medical practitioners, omission, professional negligence, safe hands, safety guidelines, traumatic experience |
