Most of us trust and rely on support from our family doctors. They are usually the first port of call to discuss a personal health matter and the majority of us are lucky enough to receive excellent care. Unfortunately there are times when a doctor may fail to diagnose a condition or illness, misdiagnose your symptoms, or otherwise fail in their duty of care to you.
GPs are the core around which our healthcare system is built. More than 90% of the NHS’s work is done by GPs, dealing with a broad range of injuries and conditions in the community and often acting as the liaison between hospitals and patients. And now through Clinical Commissioning Groups they have a major role in the spending of the NHS budget.
They undoubtedly have a greater field of responsibility than most medical professionals and must also comply with guidelines set out by the Department of Health, NHS and National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). These guidelines are clear on the expected standards of practice and legal duty of responsibility GPs have for patients in providing treatment and making referrals to a specialist doctor when required.
But even the most experienced GPs are not infallible. Long hours and the stressful demands of the role can leave GPs overstretched and unable to manage, resulting in breakdowns in communication with other specialists, administrative errors and poorly-managed patient records.
There are two main types of GP negligence:
- Failure to take action
- Incorrect action that leads to some kind of harm to the patient
It may be that your GP has failed to refer you to the hospital quickly enough for further investigations or to a specialist and consequently you have experienced a delay in your problem being diagnosed. This may result in your suffering pain for much longer than necessary or may even reduce or remove the chances of your making a full recovery. In the worst cases, this can have a catastrophic outcome resulting in a patient’s death.
Common errors in medical negligence cases are missing information on medication dosage, prescribing an incorrect dosage and failing to ensure that patients get necessary monitoring through blood tests. Those people most at risk are the elderly who are often on several drugs, and children for whom it is hard to determine a safe dosage.
We are right to put our trust in our GPs care but this should not excuse mistakes that cause injury or death.
If you or a loved one has been affected by improper or insufficient treatment by your GP, or have suffered unnecessary pain or illness due to misdiagnosis then Jackson Lees Solicitors may be able to help you move on from these mistakes and put your life back together, by bringing a GP claim and secure compensation. We fit around your life, visiting you at home and out of hours when required.
Our dedicated team of lawyers will be able to identify the issues affecting you and your loved ones and offer you the best practical advice on the options available to you.
To discuss your Medical Negligence claim, please click here for a call back or message us your enquiry.