Can I make a compensation claim against a hospital consultant who did not correctly diagnose me with an illness?
You may be able to make a compensation claim against a hospital consultant who failed to diagnose your illness; however your eligibility to claim is going to be dependent on a number of factors. First of all, you will have to have suffered medical consequences as a result of this negligence demonstrated by a consultant in the hospital. This means that you will have to have suffered a subsequent injury or illness as a result of this undiagnosed illness, or have experienced deterioration in the illness itself. It is not enough to just have had dealt with a negligent hospital consultant to have a successful claim.
Secondly, it will be necessary for negligence to be officially established. Although the failure to diagnose an illness does seem like a clear demonstration of negligence and a breach in the duty of care that all medical practitioners owe their patients, there could be a number of reasons why your illness went undiagnosed. For instance, the wrong information could have been provided to your consultant due to an administrational error or a mistake made by a nurse. In order to make a compensation claim against hospital consultant you should contact a medical negligence solicitor at the soonest possible opportunity.
Inform them of your experience with the negligent hospital consultant, the pain and suffering caused by your undiagnosed illness and the impact it has had on your life as a result. From what you tell them they will assess your claim for negligence demonstrated by a consultant in the hospital and advise you on whether or not it is worth pursuing. If they think that your claim may have sufficient strength, they will contact the medical practitioners who have been treating you to obtain any relevant medical notes. These notes will then be presented to an independent medical expert who — on the “balance of probabilities” – will determine whether or not the failure in the diagnosis of your illness was due to negligence. If they conclude that this failure to diagnose was avoidable and would not have happened in alternative circumstances, your solicitor may offer you legal representation and agree to proceed with your claim.
Because of the complicated nature of medical negligence claims, should you wish to pursue a compensation claim against a hospital consultant, it is in your best interest to seek professional legal advice. The information provided here is a general overview of what pursuing a claim may involve, it is by no means an alternative for the specific advice a medical negligence claims solicitor who has knowledge of your situation will be able to provide. Therefore, it is advisable that you contact your solicitor at the first possible opportunity to discuss your potential claim.