Medical negligence - please help

[Notmyrealname855]

Hi all

After a death in the family we’re thinking about bringing a medical negligence claim. We also want to bring a complaint against the GP and a consultant, but already know the process for that.

Does anyone have hints or tips about what solicitor to use? We were just going to email a few of the most highly rated ones from The Legal 500 guide...

Any help would be so much appreciated. Please be kind with responses, it was a very traumatic and graphic death and has taken us a while to consider doing anything.

Many thanks for any responses

I'd recommend Enable Law: www.enablelaw.com/

They are assisting with a claim for my family and are excellent.

In the Midlands, Irwin Mitchell, Slater + Gordon and Clarke Willmott are 'big names', with newspaper articles mentioning one of them at least once a week.

Thank you both so much!!! We are in the NW and I don’t know how much the solicitors need to be local / know the particular hospital. I will continue to research and any other tips are so much appreciated

The location of the solicitors is irrelevant - everything can be done by email/post. And any meetings that need to take place can be organised at a mutually convenient location, so just focus on speaking to the lawyers in the first instance, getting a feel for whether you like them, trust them etc, and go from there. You should be able to get some preliminary advice (very high level) by calling them, explaining the circumstances and going from there.

Get copies of all medical records from GP and hospital before you advise the NHS that you are making a complaint. Good luck.

The GP and consultants you're going after have likely treated thousands of people over the course of their career and saved countless lives. It does make me uneasy when people go after medical professionals like this

JMW solicitors Manchester one of the leading med neg teams in the country.
they will triage your claim and give you advice on chances of success based on initial review of papers.

Sorry for your loss, it's a difficult time. Have you thought about speaking to PALS about your concerns and the GP practice manager to look through the notes and discuss what happened.

Thompsons is big for PI/Med Neg cases.

Thorn90

Likewise there are some terrible, terrible consultants who have made lives of those left behind depressing and negatively changed forever - and it's a pattern because the path of least resistance is to do nothing, the natural inclination of the bereaved and depressed.

So please don't begrudge the OP the opportunity to act (where so many of us were too traumatized by loss to do so).

I applaud you OP. Hold them accountable.

But remember health care professionals are human with the usual human frailties and failings.

They overlooked cancer in 16 consultations - a GP friend has said it’s catastrophically negligent. Our area has a history of horrible negligence - we’ve just lost a young girl here to cancer after they told her repeatedly it was indigestion. Can think of five other examples alone from the last few years of them turning people away and saying “take a paracetamol” only for it to be something incredibly serious. All the nurses and then everyone in palliative care were just incredible, just wish it hadn’t got to that stage. But agree that in most cases they’re just human etc etc... here though they’re just not bothered. Been mistakes like this for a decade or more.

It is not about compensation it is about preventing the same misdiagnosis happening to anyone else. It can be helpful in coming to terms with a loss to feel something positive has come from the situation and the only way to ensure this is with legal help otherwise too often it is just covered up and nothing changes for others. We should be grateful that there are people prepared to fight to help others. Sorry for your loss OP.

The legal process is not for the faint hearted. It is exceptionally stressful, continues for years and years, and takes over your life. I personally don’t think it’s worth it.

Not even if it saves other lives?

Litigation has nothing to do with helping save lives. It’s a legal and not clinical process

The GP and consultants you're going after have likely treated thousands of people over the course of their career and saved countless lives. It does make me uneasy when people go after medical professionals like this

Indeed, but there are also incompetent/lazy ones who kill and maim. Read Peter Duffy's whistle blowing book "whistle in the wind" for first hand experience of reality, cover ups etc in our hospitals.

Singlewhite - how else do you suggest getting the clinical process reviewed and incompetent staff dealt with as the legal process seems the only way to get acknowledgement that this needs to happen in some areas.

It's very tempting, in the face of a terrible loss, to want to hold somebody to account. But in the case of cancer then it is simply not possible to hold any individual to account for the death. If the cancer had been diagnosed at the first attendance it could still have been fatal. Do not be tempted to think you will be fighting to prove your loss was avoidable. The matter in question is whether suffering could have been avoided.
Tests could have been ordered earlier - but how can you know that would have resulted in earlier diagnosis?
In retrospect it's easy to see cancer was indicated but what did they think was going on instead?
Was that really an unreasonable belief?

Litigation is a long road and in this type of case is unlikely to be straightforward or deliver peace of mind for you. Think carefully before you go forward, you could spend years chasing something you won't ever catch.

chewable24 Making a complaint as you first suggested, meeting with the hospital / GP surgery to discuss your concerns. Reporting to CQC or to professional bodies.
I was raising a note of caution rather than suggesting that it is immoral. It’s very easy to say “sue them” and the actual process is a complete nightmare. If you have a child or relative who has been seriously injured by incompetence or negligence and they require additional care, specialist accommodation and therapy, then the stress of the litigation process can be worth it.

Don't be put off by those on this thread who know little of the litigation process, or the necessary thresholds to pursue successful litigation.

Let's take cancer as an example. Let's say someone has skin cancer which, if caught at Stage One, would mean they would have over 90% chance of survival at 5 years post-diagnosis (for argument's sake).

Let's say that despite that person going to the doctor, the hospital, seeking advice, the cancer was overlooked and then not diagnosed until it was Stage Three, and the chances of surviving for 5 years at this stage then fall to say 30%.

If early diagnosis would have led to a greater than 50% chance of effective treatment, and that treatment was not forthcoming owing to the doctors' negligence, then you have a strong case on causation
and recovery.

Please do contact one of the sets of solicitors mentioned up-thread. They can review the papers, provide initial advice and talk you through the process.

If it's not about money then you could always donate the money eon back to the hospital. I'm not sure many people do that.