To make a claim against hospital

[PistachioFrapp]

Not sure if I'm reasonable to do this or if I just need to suck it up?

I had 3 suspicious moles removed before Christmas, 2 biopsies came back clear but the 3rd sample went missing.

Hospital debated for a few weeks and then said it was up to me, probably all ok, but if I wanted to be sure they could do a wider excision on the third one to do another biopsy.

Obviously I went ahead and thankfully it was clear. So, in the end, no harm was done.

BUT

The truth is, the procedure is not very pleasant, and it was worse second time around as they had to cut wider and deeper. I had to go into London for the procedure and a follow up which cost money and took up my time. The healing process was inevitably longer and more painful and the scar is twice as big as it should have been.

I'm really annoyed, I have a horrible scar that still hasn't fully healed (the other original two have healed and faded and don't bother me at all).

It's a private hospital btw if that makes a difference so I don't have any guilt about attacking the NHS.

Should I pursue for compensation or just get over it?

How much £££ are you after?

Get over it. You made the decision to have it checked a second time. They made a mistake and lost it, if it was cancer then yes I’d make a claim but it’s not. Be grateful it’s not and move on. Scars are scars. My mum has horrible scars from having genuine skin cancer from moles and having the chemo etc. scars heal in time.

Yes, losing a sample is pretty poor and I would be looking for compensation as well. At the very least the follow up unnecessary procedure should have been paid for by the hospital, as should all of your additional expenses. Your expectation might not be met though as damages would be on the lower end. Probably £1 - 2k plus expenses over and above what you would have paid had the sample not been lost. This isn't my area of expertise and it might depend on your age, profession and size of scar.

Private as in fully private rather than NHS but at a private hospital?

If private then I guess there are terms and conditions. One may be they accept no liability if a sample goes missing. Read the contract is my advice.

If you paid privately I'd be looking at a full refund at the very least.

As it’s a private hospital, you’re fine to complain. They have probably already made you sign something to cover themselves over the bigger scar etc.

don’t be daft op

you don’t have a leg to stand on

I would be more annoyed that the sample was lost but reassured the repeat biopsies were clear. Sounds to me that you are looking for easy money, but everyone has their own moral code. I would worry if I found another mole I wouldn't be able to go back to the same place again after suing them.

That would probably be an unfair contract terms. Op is a consumer here and they were negligent.

presumably you didn’t pay for the follow up incision?

That's a good point about the paperwork, I haven't checked to see what it says, if anything, about liability for lost samples.

I didn't have to pay for the second procedure itself so haven't lost out financially.

It's fully private, nothing to do with the NHS.

You’ve suffered no harm, so you haven’t got any basis for a claim.🤷‍♀️

don’t waste your time op

It's on my mind because I have another mole I'm probably going to need removing and I'm fed up about another procedure when I'm still in a fair bit of pain from this.

I'm not going back to the first place so I'm not worried about burning my bridges with them!

Thank god you're not a lawyer.

Op has suffered significant harm. She had to undergo an additional unnecessary procedure, has a scar that's twice as large as it would have been, suffered pain, discomfort, incurred additional expenses and unnecessary additional worry. That is the very definition of harm.

I do feel that I have suffered harm.

Literally, two scars are healed and irrelevant, but the third is bothering me massively after all this time plus I had to go through a procedure that I shouldn't have needed.

they lost the third sample

You then took the decision to go for a bigger incision!

but if I wanted to be sure they could do a wider excision on the third one to do another biopsy.

Do it. You have a very good case against them

they OP decided to go for a wider excision!

They lost the sample told you and repeated the process in a timely manner. You have no ill-effects. I suppose you could claim for your additional costs of travel etc. and you may get something, but it’s sadly just human error. It’s not as if they lied or anything.

This isn’t correct. OP says in the original post that the procedure and follow up incurred costs (presumably things like travel costs). There is also a value to her time, worry, the larger incision, the prolonged healing period etc. These things all constitute harm from a legal perspective.

OP - what I would say to you is that it’s unlikely that this would be a very high value claim, which means it might well not be worth the time, effort and expense of pursuing it. Unless the hospital settled immediately (which they might), it would probably not be worth it.

You could speak to a solicitor for an initial view on the merits of the claim to get a better sense of whether it’s worth pursuing. You could also try approaching the hospital directly to see if they would be willing to agree to some form of compensation.

It wasn't really much of a choice tbh.

This mole is worrying, we need to remove it and check for cancer.......... we lost the sample so don't know if it was cancerous....... shall we check again or just assume it was ok

Who on earth would not want to check and be sure?

Sue for what?

Good advice.