Suing the NHS

[LifeisHard73]

I’ve sadly been diagnosed with an illness that should’ve been picked up 2 years ago. I’ve currently got complaints lodged with my gp and the hospital but I intend to try and sue.

I know there will be opinions about if this is or isn’t right but the advice I’m looking for is if anyone has done this without a solicitor?

I did contact one no win no fee solicitor but they’ve said they can’t take it on, they said:

In your case, we consider that whilst the treatment that you received may have fallen below an acceptable standard, it will be difficult to prove that you have suffered injury as a direct result. This is because the injury may have occurred in any event.

whilst I don’t dispute it might have happened anyway. The delay has made my prognosis worse and I’ve also made financial decisions that I wouldn’t have made if this had been flagged sooner.

looking to hearing from anyone who’s done this without a solicitor.

TY

Always difficult to get these things right.

Recently, while on holiday in Wales, I suffered an acute cardiac episode and was taken to the nearest hospital where I waited 14 hours only to be discharged with a misdiagnosis of oesophogeal spasm in spite of me outlining my cardiac history.
A few weeks later I was admitted to my local hospital and needed a major coronary artery stenting as it was blocked to 94%.
I contacted the Welsh hospital, outlined my concerns and said that I thought their protocols needed reviewing.
Long story short they accepted this as a complaint ... they cannot investigate without a formal complaint ... and several weeks later I received a lengthy report. They had looked into it in great detail and had changed the A&E protocols, and also used my case as a teaching tool for junior doctors joining the department.
Their wording was very careful. They could not admit any sort of liability for a missed diagnosis, but they did state clearly that mistakes were made and outlined what should have happened. I was happy with that outcome as hopefully it might have a positive result for another patient.
I did not think that pursuing compensation would be in anyones interests, least of all mine as the stress involved would be detrimental.

I don’t want to divulge further but but consultant I’m under now told me he was surprised this hadn’t been looked at sooner and that he would be writing to my GP and another consultant to advice that symptoms and results such as mine should not be ignored.

I’m sorry to read this and no she shouldn’t drop if not matter how long it takes.

I’ll be deleting this post later. I have the answers I was looking for and appreciate all views.

Really sorry to hear about what happened to you, but what kind of financial decisions are we talking? Surely you’d always be aware that your health could change unexpectedly?

I would not even consider an attempt to do this without legal representation. It is extremely hard to get a definitive confirmation that a doctor had made the wrong diagnosis/decision AND this had been the sole cause of your adverse outcome. You need to prove both elements. Considering two doctors can recommend differing courses of treatment for the same issue and doctors are very unwilling to be critical of their peers' work unless they've done something really egregious and there is no wiggle room at all you are on a hiding to nothing. From what you said it is more about something NOT being done quickly enough, I do think this can sometimes be even harder to prove than the wrong thing being done.

Either way you will have no chance against a professional legal expert in medical cases and that's who will be supplied by the doctor's union. You will be liable for costs if you lose. Have you pursued all the internal complaint procedures vis NHS/hospital?

Even if you win the process can take years - look at the time taken on some of the birth injury cases - kids are in their teens before it's settled.

The picture your current consultant is seeing
may be different to your original presenting blood tests.
For many chronic conditions there is usually a history of deterioration or slow onset. Sometimes the body rallies and normal levels can temporarily occur. This happens in many endocrine disorders. You only have to look at menopause where perimenopausal symptoms are the result of the ovaries desperately trying to continue functioning and having to produce more and more of the hormone precursors to generate normal levels of oestrogen and progesterone.
So be wary of consultants presuming that their colleagues are incompetent. Sometimes diagnosis is complicated early but bloody obvious after a certain point.
I have just lost my DSis to cancer. She was diagnosed over the August bank holiday and died around 8 weeks later.
In June she was symptomless, still running but did have vague stuff going on. Her tumour was very aggressive and had dread throughout her body rapidly. Early diagnosis would most likely have been an incidental finding but would have had no influence on the outcome. Some cancers still kill rapidly and are not treatable/curable.
Sadly she had just celebrated 22 yrs survival of breast cancer. Ironically if it had been secondary breast cancer she would probably still be with us as it is much easier to diagnose.
I had breast cancer diagnosed in 2021 via screening. My appointment was 12months overdue and I may have been diagnosed at a much earlier stage if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. However, my prognosis is the same as if I had been diagnosed earlier so I have not been disadvantaged. I had seen my GP in 2019 with a lump in the same area but GP wasn’t concerned.
We will never know if it was my tumour at an early stage. If I had had a clear mammogram then I may not have been recalled until much further on and then been diagnosed at a much later stage. I probably did have a case if I had wanted to pursue it but I’m not sure how negligence has affected my life. I was always going to be diagnosed, as it stands I am in the same position as I would have been had it been caught 18mnths earlier.
And with the type of cancer I had the risk of recurrence or spread is the same whatever size it is.
Finding out slightly later that you have a chronic disease has no affect on the ultimate outcome. For example Parkinson’s, it’s diagnosed on symptoms and can take 2-3 years of observation to confirm the diagnosis. Early intervention with medication has no impact on the disease other than suppressing symptoms earlier. The drugs used have particular problematic side effects and add more problems to your daily life but overall are of benefit.
Degenerative diseases are generally what they say they are, degenerative.

I'm trying to do this right now OP because there have been so many mistakes its a whole year on and I'm not even on the waiting list for a hip replacement.
My cousin who works in this field says absolutely don't take in on yourself, its extremely complex and if you lose you will have to repay thousands of pounds in court fees.
If you can't find a no win no fee solicitor to take it on for you, you need to ring the law society on 020 724 212 22 for advice.
I'm currently ringing round all the no win no fee solicitors to see if anyone will take on my case, the first two said no but I have many more to try.

I don’t want to divulge further but but consultant I’m under now told me he was surprised this hadn’t been looked at sooner and that he would be writing to my GP and another consultant to advice that symptoms and results such as mine should not bef their ignored
That is nowhere near evidence of malpractice. GPs are not expected to know everything, and yes, it can take seeing a number of consultants before finding one familiar with your condition. Also, different consultants can have different views on what triggers a diagnosis when it comes to some illnesses.

Some people are diagnosed with conditions they probably don't have and vice versa. None of this is sueable. The NHS is not infaillible. Malpractice comes in when a clinician has willingly failed to do something or done something they shouldn't have that was clear negligence from what can be expected of their education or guidance deemed essential.

There are good and not so good clinicians. Those not so good can't just be sued by all their patients.

From the little information shared here, the balance is on the don't go anywhere hoping to win suing the NHS.

@Angrymum22 sorry for your loss.

@Angrymum22 im so sorry to read this about your sister and also your sad news. I know in a way im ‘lucky’ because it isn’t cancer but it is life changing and probably life limiting.

My condition could’ve and should’ve been diagnosed a lot sooner, that much has been acknowledged. What I am now trying to establish is if this delay has made my long term prognosis worse, plus if I can claim for financial loss.

Thank you! I wish you much luck.

What's your condition?

Yabu. If no win no fee won’t take you on, you’re just chancing it. You could stand to incur a lot of charges, I wouldn’t.

We are doing this for mothers in law via no win no fee. But it relates to a hospital acquired injury which is impossible to dispute. It's very stressful even with the legal team. Tbh I don't think there is much point in taking this on yourself if legal advice has deemed it unwinnable.

Of course we are all aware that our health could change or we could get knocked down by a bus. However, I left a job to go freelance, I left private health plus loads of other benefits behind but IF health professionals had done their job I’d obviously never have done that.

At that stage I already had multiple symptoms which were being passed off as just getting old or have a pill to deal with the symptom but not the cause. I wouldn’t be trying to pursue this if I hadn’t been told that the blood marker should have been investigated when it first showed up. I will seek to get this in writing.

At that stage I already had multiple symptoms which were being passed off as just getting old or have a pill to deal with the symptom but not the cause
But that's like 1000s of people every year. I too left a job thinking it was stress when I was actually starting the menopause but was told I was too young. It was a mistake but I can't assume that had they diagnosed it sooner, Id still be on that job earning about £20k more by now.

Also, if you had access to private healthcare, why didn't you use it? I'm confused!

I've successfully settled my case with nhs so basically won as they know if they went to court they'd loose anyways. We used digby brown was fantastic. My other family members are still going through it and have a pretrail meeting soon. Total time has been about 2 years and not that stressful if I'm honest digby brown did all the work I just waited to see what would happen. However one family member has found it stressful but she tends to get in a flap about the bus being late not to minimise what she feels but she stresses about lots of things which probably didn't help.

The case seems pretty cut and dry though 3 missed opportunities to save a life. not reading blood test was one reason. And no follow ups which they said they had done.

Try a few no win no fees and see what they say. We contacted a few and they all wanted the case. We went with digby brown as they was the most sensitive about it.

@LifeisHard73
I'm very sorry that you've received substandard care.
And if there is no recourse (which very well might be the case) I'm angry on your behalf and together with you. It is completely unjust.

If someone failed in their duty to follow correct processes, protocols, codes for best practice or failed to deliver a reasonably expected minimum in the standard of care... There should be ways to hold these organisations and/or individuals accountable. There should be. But with the standards of our government services falling rapidly below acceptable across the board (Police and NHS in my experience ) one might as well be standing on the deck of The Titanic and screaming for attention. The ship is sinking and no one gives a shit.

Lack of personal accountability only serves those who are inherently disinterested, malicious or negligent. Our NHS is just the right environment for the above.

Stay strong 💐

I don’t think confusing stress and menopause is reply the same thing I’m going through. I’m not diminishing how awful meno symptoms can be.

And didn’t use private heath because I didn’t know I was seriously unwell. That’s kind of my point!

@QueenCamilla thank you. This means a lot.

Ive worked for the nhs for 45 years as a RN and a podiatrist. I would never have approved of sueing the nhs but having been treated worse than a street dog for a year and ended up only able to crawl as a result of mysteriously disppearing appointments, being taken off surgery lists and not being told or given an explanation, losing hundreds of pounds of salary and left to rot I am ready to sue the pants off them.
I have no medical problems other than needing a straighfoward hip replacement. I dont give a shit about the morality of it now.

I would recommend contacting AvMA - their website has some really helpful resources, and they have recommended solicitors on their website.

@Gettingbysomehow I'm so sorry to hear this and I share your anger. I too do not give shit about morality of this situation. My life has changed forever and financially I’m not sure how we will manage as I will most likely not work much for at least a year. I’m not sure why I should just let that pass!

Surely if you had symptoms you knew something wasn’t right? Why would you leave a job with so many perks if you continued to have blood tests because you knew something wasn’t right?
Always make a point of asking for a copy of blood results. You also must have known which test they were doing and therefore the illness you were looking at, so surely those symptoms would match them and would know yourself that you had the illness you have this way?