When failure and delays in providing treatment is a cause for medical negligence

We all know that our National Health Service (NHS) is extremely busy. The mainstream media inform us about the constant shortages of nurses and hospital beds all the time. With so many patients and so little staff, sometimes it feels like the quality of care the NHS provides has significantly dropped. In their busy and long shifts, doctors and nurses are arguably susceptible to making mistakes more than we would like to think about.

Research states that around 15% of patients suffer a misdiagnosis or mistreatment because of mistakes. In the worst of these scenarios, people can be left suffering with serious problems.

Our health is something we often forget to prioritise, but many of us come to realise at some point in our lives that, if we look after our health, it in turn can look after us.

Treatment can provide the necessary surgery or prescriptions we may need for serious ailments, and delays can mean unnecessary and prolonged suffering; and in some serious cases it can mean irreparable damage.

Many complications that are caused by the failure to provide treatment are very preventable.

To use a rather graphic and extreme example… Imagine if you had a deep cut on your arm that was infected, but treatment was delayed or never came because of a medical error. With timely treatment, your cut could have healed nicely in a few weeks, but without that treatment, the infection could become worse and spread around your arm. The prolonged unnecessary suffering you had whilst waiting for medical treatment could have been prevented if you were treated correctly.

In this kind of scenario, an infection could spread so quickly that it may lead to a medical amputation. We must recognise that even the simplest of errors can leave victims with irreversible damage.

What can I do?

If you have been a victim of medical negligence because a healthcare professional failed to provide you with the treatment you needed – either in time or at all – you may be eligible for compensation. You should not have to suffer any complications caused by a negligent clinician’s actions or lack of action.

Talk to us now to see how we can help you bring a claim.

We can prove the case by instructing a medical expert to investigate your medical records to see if you suffered an unnecessary delay that caused you to receive delayed or no treatment.

Even if you were due a knee surgery but had the operation suddenly pushed back six months, we can help you claim for the pain and suffering of having an untreated knee for six months. If the delay in surgery led to complications with your knee injury, we can help you claim for the subsequent treatment for the worsened knee and the suffering that came with it.

It all comes down to what was reasonable and what should have been expected in terms of the level of carer you need and deserve.