Did Your Doctor Miss a Serious Illness?
We all trust our doctors, which is why they are the first point of call when we feel unwell. We explain our symptoms to them, and they give us their diagnosis, a prescription may be, and we go away to start our treatment. What happens if the treatment doesn’t work because your doctor has got it totally wrong? What happens if the symptoms you informed them of pointed to something much more serious and they missed it? What could go wrong if they do not send you for further tests because of the information you have given them?
Your Life Could Be Changed
Not all serious illnesses are life-threatening, but some are.
Cancer is the first one that most people would think of. If the tests are delayed, so will the treatment be, and the later your cancer is treated, the less successful chemotherapy and radiotherapy are likely to be. Even something as advanced as the robotic radiation delivery system known as Cyberknife will be more successful with its results in the early stages of the disease.
A simple blood test is all that is needed to diagnose diabetes, another potentially life-threatening disease, that your doctor can carry that out in their surgery. The lifestyle of a person with diabetes needs to change in most cases, and if it is not treated, the consequences can be severe. Sight can be affected, cause heart problems, and sometimes, fingers or toes are lost. If your doctor has missed the pronounced symptoms of diabetes, you should seek advice from solicitors such as The Medical Negligence Experts, who offer free over the phone advice about claiming compensation. If this delay in diagnosis had a seriously debilitating effect on your life, then you’d be surprised at how much money you will be able to claim.
Many other serious illnesses can change your life, and if your doctor fails to diagnose that you are suffering from one, a medical negligence claim would be in order.
Why It Is Best to Use No Win No Fee Medical Negligence Lawyers
Before introducing conditional fee agreements, you either had to be rich enough to meet the solicitors’ bills yourself or poor enough to claim legal aid. This has been the situation since the introduction of the welfare state in the 1940s. Still, it left many people who were unable to make a compensation claim, whether it was for medical negligence or some other type of injury.
At the turn of the century, legal aid was withdrawn from the personal injury claim industry and replaced with conditional fee agreements. This quickly became known as no win, no fee because that is exactly what it means. The beauty of this type of agreement when using medical negligence lawyers is that everyone, no matter how rich or poor they are, has the same opportunity to access the justice they deserve.
If your case qualifies to make no win no fee medical negligence claims in the UK, you will not have to find any money for your solicitors’ fees if your claim is lost, and that can take away much of the financial worries of claiming. Considering all types of personal injury claims, fewer than 30% of those entitled to compensation bother to make a claim. The biggest single reason that the others do not proceed is that they are worried about the costs involved if they want the best medical negligence solicitors on their side. The more people who learn about no win no fee, the better, the more innocent victims will win the compensation they are legally entitled to for medical malpractice or any other personal injury claim.
Common Misconceptions of Making a Compensation Claim for Medical Negligence UK
Apart from financial reasons, there are other misconceptions about using medical negligence solicitors, solicitors for injuries from a road traffic accident, accidents at work, or any other form of personal injury that was not your fault. The other most common reasons people give are:
- My injury or illness was not serious enough. Your situation needs to have been bad enough for you to need medical attention, whether at your local A & E with a broken wrist or visiting a specialist because of an illness your doctor missed.
- It takes too long – No one can guarantee a time limit on a compensation claim, but all we can tell you is that most medical negligence claims are settled before they reach the court stage, and that reduces the time scale dramatically.
- It is too much effort – This is not something that needs to concern you as your solicitors will deal with all the hard work and leave you to concentrate on your recovery.
Don’t let yourself be one of the 70% that loses out on their compensation. If your doctor misses a serious illness or mistreats you in any other way, then speak with the experts as soon as possible and get your medical negligence claim underway.
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