In this guide we answer questions such as “what is clinical negligence in health and social care?”. We also look at how to make a claim for yourself or on behalf of someone else.
All medical and healthcare professionals owe a duty of care to their patients (whether in hospital, a clinic or in a community setting, including the patient’s home), or residents in care facilities. If they breach this duty of care and a patient or resident is harmed, a clinical negligence claim could be made.
If after reading our guide you are ready to make a claim for health and social care negligence please get in contact with our team. You can;
- Call us now on 0333 000 0729
- Make an online enquiry about your medical negligence claim.
- Use our live chat below.
Browse Our Guide
- What Is Clinical Negligence?
- What Is Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?
- How Do I Claim For Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?
- Can I Claim For Clinical Negligence On Someone’s Behalf?
- Can I Claim For The Death Of A Loved One Caused By Clinical Negligence?
- How Much Compensation For A Medical Negligence Case?
- Claim For Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care On A No Win No Fee Basis
- Read About Medical Negligence Claims
What Is Clinical Negligence?
Before we look in more detail at what clinical negligence in health and social care is, we will explain what clinical negligence is. Clinical negligence may also be referred to as medical negligence.
All healthcare and medical professionals have a duty of care to their patients. This means that the care they provide needs to meet the minimum expected standards. The failure to meet standards expected of a similar professional could have harmful consequences for those under their care.
In order to make a claim for clinical negligence, you must meet the eligibility requirements. These are,
- That a medical or healthcare professional owed you a duty of care. This will be the case if you were under their care.
- The medical professional breached their duty of care to you. They may have failed to correctly diagnose a medical condition.
- That this breach, such as the failure to diagnose an illness, caused you unnecessary or avoidable harm.
Find out if one of our panel of clinical negligence solicitors could help you by contacting our team.
What Is Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?
Now that we have looked at what clinical negligence means, in this section, we will answer the question, “What is clinical negligence in health and social care?”. Health and social care may be used to refer to the whole of the UK’s healthcare ecosystem. It encompasses services provided by the NHS and the private sector.
Healthcare can broadly be split into;
- Primary care, such as NHS walk in centres, GP or dental surgeries and opticians.
- Secondary care. These are services which may need a referral from a GP. This may include mental healthcare or elective surgery.
- Tertiary care. Such as transplants or plastic surgery.
Community healthcare. This may also include pharmacies, health visitors and district services.
Social care are services which provide assistance to people, such as those who are vulnerable, with daily activities. This could include services such as assistance with hygiene, feeding and other help.
Clinical negligence may include providing negligent treatment or care in any of these areas.
Negligence In Healthcare
Examples of negligence in healthcare could include;
- Hospital negligence. A hospital may fail to meet basic hygiene standards leading to patients developing a hospital acquired infection, such as MRSA.
- Negligent treatment during labour or childbirth, such as the failure to diagnose pre-eclampsia, could lead to serious birth injury to mother or baby.
- Surgical errors could include surgery being carried out on the wrong site (wrong part of the body, such as the wrong limb).
- Wrong medication negligence. This may involve a GP prescribing either the wrong medication to a patient or the wrong dosage of a medication.
Negligence In Social Care
Examples of negligence in social care could include;
- Staff giving a resident the wrong medication in a care home. This could mean the person’s condition gets worse or they may be harmed by the medication itself.
- If residents are not moved properly or often whilst they are in bed or seated they could develop pressure sores.
- The failure to treat any pressure sores could lead the person to develop sepsis from bed sores.
Contact our team to find out more about the clinical negligence claims procedure and to check if you could claim for harm caused by negligent treatment.
How Do I Claim For Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?
Now that we’ve answered “What is clinical negligence in health and social care?”, we will explain the types of evidence that could help you claim compensation. With any type of clinical negligence claim it is important to make sure you have evidence which shows what harm you suffered, who caused the harm, why it happened and how it has impacted you.
Examples of evidence which could help you to claim compensation may include;
- Copies of your medical records. Your medical records will contain information on diagnosis and treatment you have been provided as well as who provided the medical services and when. It should also contain evidence of referrals, such as a referral letter for community care. This can help to show how you were impacted by the healthcare professionals’ negligence.
- The contact details for anyone who witnessed the medical negligence happen or the harm caused by it so they can give a statement later on in the claims process. For example, if the community nurse was meant to change your dressings but failed to show up and a family member had to help you instead, you can save their contact information.
- Photos of any visible harm caused, such as pressure sores.
- Documentation or receipts which show further treatment you sought for your condition. This may include receipts for any private treatment.
If you have any queries about how to view your GP health record or how to prove medical negligence please contact our clinical negligence claim team.
Can I Claim For Clinical Negligence On Someone’s Behalf?
If a loved one has been harmed by negligence on the part of a healthcare professional, you could claim compensation on their behalf. Examples of when you could claim for another person include;
- Where the person harmed was under the age of eighteen, they will be unable to claim on their own behalf. A parent, guardian or other suitable adult (such as a clinical negligence solicitor) may be appointed by the court to act in their capacity as a Litigation friend.
- If a loved one lacks the mental capacity to act on their own behalf in a compensation claim, you may also be appointed as a Litigation friend.
In both instances, the standard medical negligence claims time limit of three years to start the process will not apply. For a child, a Litigation friend can claim at any point until the child turns eighteen. At this point, they are now able to claim on their own behalf, and the three-year time limit will apply. In the case of someone who lacks the mental capacity to claim, a Litigation friend may do so at any time unless they regain their mental capacity. The three-year time limit will not start unless they do regain their mental capacity.
For more information on how to claim for clinical negligence on behalf of another person, please contact our team.
Can I Claim For The Death Of A Loved One Caused By Clinical Negligence?
Health and social care may be provided to those who are more vulnerable, such as the elderly or those requiring end-of-life care. If you think that a loved one died due to negligent medical care, you could make a fatal medical negligence claim.
Fatal medical negligence claims may work differently to other medical or clinical negligence claims. Fatal accident claims may be made by;
- The deceased of the estate,
- A spouse or civil partner,
- Someone who lived with the deceased as a spouse for two years (or longer) before their death,
- Parents of the deceased or those treated as a parent.
- Children or other descendants of the deceased.
- Aunts, uncles or siblings.
A fatal accident claim may be made under legislation such as the Fatal Accident Act 1976. To learn more about the fatal clinical negligence claims process or to claim for death by hospital negligence, please contact our team. They can also answer “What Is Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?” and advise whether you could make a fatal negligence claim on behalf of a loved one.
How Much Compensation For A Medical Negligence Case?
If your medical negligence case is successful and is awarded compensation this may be made up of two heads of claim. These are general damages and special damages. General damages compensate you for the physical and mental harm (pain and suffering) caused. To help calculate what you may be eligible to claim, solicitors (and others responsible for calculating the claim) may use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG).
The JCG provides guideline amounts of compensation which may be awarded for different types of harm suffered by a person.
In the table below we have included examples in row’s 2-10 of guidelines for different injuries from the JCG. The first row looks at what may be awarded for general and special damages combined. Please note, this figure in the first row was not taken from the JCG. Furthermore, as all clinical negligence claims are different, the table is only intended as a guide.
| Harm | Severity | Notes | Compensation Guideline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious or severe injuries with special damages. | Serious or severe | Multiple different injuries and special damages. | Up to £1,000,000+ inclusive of special damages. |
| Brain damage | Very severe - A | Cases where the person may have some ability to follow basic commands. There may be no meaningful response to their environment. | £344,150 to £493,000 |
| Bowel | D - Severe abdominal injury | A severe injury which impairs bowel function and which may need a temporary colostomy. | £54,420 to £85,100 |
| Back | Severe - A - (iii) | Fractures or disc lesions leading to chronic conditions. | £47,320 to £85,100 |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder | Moderately severe - B | The person may make a degree of recovery with professional help. | £28,250 to £73,050 |
| Elbow | Less severe - B | Causing impaired function but which does not cause significant disability or require major surgery. | £19,100 to £39,070 |
| Neck | Moderate - B - (ii) | Soft tissue or wrenching injuries or disc lesions as well as other types of harm to the neck. | £16,770 to £30,500 |
| Shoulder | Serious - B | Shoulder dislocation with damage affecting the lower brachial plexus. | £15,580 to £23,430 |
| Leg | Less serious - C - (ii) | A simple femur fracture. | £11,120 to £17,180 |
| Knee | Moderate - B - (ii) | Including ;acerations, bruising or twisting. | Up to £16,770 |
Special damages are designed to compensate for the financial impact the harm has had on you. Their purpose is to put you back into the same financial position you were in prior to being harmed by medical negligence.
Special damages may compensate for;
- Lost income and earnings, including pension contributions or entitlement to overtime.
- Medical treatment and prescriptions.
- Travel to and from medical appointments.
- Specialised equipment, such as a bed.
- Home and vehicle adaptions.
When claiming special damages, you will be expected to submit proof of these costs. Evidence may include copies of your bank statement or invoices for treatment.
For more information on how private medical negligence or NHS medical negligence payouts may be calculated, please contact our team. They can also discuss “What Is Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care?” and advise on the value of your claim.
Claim For Clinical Negligence In Health and Social Care On A No Win No Fee Basis
If you choose to make a clinical negligence compensation claim, a solicitor from our panel could offer to handle your case through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee contract between a solicitor and a client.
The benefits of working with a solicitor on a No Win No Fee basis include:
- Not having to pay upfront and ongoing fees for your solicitor’s services.
- If you lose your case, there will be nothing to pay for your No Win No Fee solicitors work.
- Only if you win, will your solicitor take a fee. This is known as success fee and it will be taken from the compensation awarded to you. It is a legally-capped percentage.
Find out more about how medical negligence solicitors could help you by calling;
- Phone our team on 0333 000 0729
- Start your claim by making an online enquiry.
- Talk to us using the live chat below.
Read About Medical Negligence Claims
You can learn more about the clinical negligence claims process in our related guides below.
- This guide answers the question, what is the average payout for cancer misdiagnosis and looks at how compensation is calculated.
- Find out what you claim for poor care in hospital could be worth in this guide.
- Here we look at further examples of medical negligence you could claim for.
References:
- You can report a concern about a care facility to the Care Quality Commission.
- Find out more about health and safety in care homes in this Health and Safety Executive resource.
- View NHS never events data here.
We hope our guide has answered the question, “What is clinical negligence in health and social care?” Find out more about how to claim for clinical negligence and how clinical negligence cases work by contacting our team.
