Advice please. Reluctant Medical Negligence claim

If you don't want financial compensation you would be wasting your time with a 'no win no fee' legal firms they just simply want to get as much money as possible out of the guilty party, and I speak from experience.

To get legal advice otherwise it would no doubt cost you just the same as legal advice for any other issue I suppose but you might get a free consultation to begin with.

I am sure some other GNetters can shed some light on this

Thank you Astichintime. I’m so disgusted by the lack of candour in the response that I’d go down the ‘no win no fee’ route just to make the Health Board be honest! Has anyone had experience of using these firms? Perhaps if I approached one I would know if I stood a chance.

There is the PALS route

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/what-is-pals-patient-advice-and-liaison-service/#:~:text=The%20Patient%20Advice%20and%20Liaison,their%20families%20and%20their%20carers.

Thats the only route I can think of, it does include

"the NHS complaints procedure, including how to get independent help if you want to make a complaint"

no, I haven't but I always think these things improve service for those who come after us, as the other person said you probably won't get a solicitor to act for you if you don't want money so I'd take the money and give it to charity if you really don;t want it

My friend did it after the birth of her disabled daughter.
After 6 years of fighting she gave up.
Believe me, the hospital will fight you tooth and nail.

Thank you Wyllow3. I submitted my formal complaint via PALs and having had the formal response after 3 months I, and everyone who has been supporting me, believe I am being ‘fobbed off’.

Petra, I’m so very sorry for your friend, the injustice will stay with her.

I would tell them you want xyz/info and are giving them a chance to explain befote you take it to the health ombudsman.

I would give them, say, 14 days and then make a formal complaint to the ombudsman.

NotSpaghetti

I would tell them you want xyz/info and are giving them a chance to explain befote you take it to the health ombudsman.

I would give them, say, 14 days and then make a formal complaint to the ombudsman.

Yes, this.

Also you can leave a review for the NHS department for what happened.

www.nhs.uk/give-feedback-about-the-nhs-website/find-out-how-to-review-an-nhs-service/#:~:text=Leave%20a%20rating%20and%20review,open%20the%20service%20profile

But what I did in the end was log my issue with the Care Opinion Website.

“You can also give your feedback by sharing your experience on the Care Opinion website. This is an independent, non-profit organisation. It enables people to post public, but anonymous, stories about the health and care services that they, or someone they know, have received”.

(they have a phone number)

www.careopinion.org.uk/contact#:~:text=Contact%20the%20Care%20Opinion%20team&text=If%20you%20need%20to%20contact,to%20send%20us%20a%20message

You need a solicitor who spcialises is personal injury. You can get a list of specialists from the Law Society or any large local firm of solicitors will have someone who specialises in personal injury work.

I was about to write exactly the same as MOnica. If you do go down that route, be prepared for it to drag on for a long time. These cases can be extremely complex and involve outside agencies.

Seeking legal advice will probably be very expensive though.

Might be worth a look at this www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint/what-we-can-and-cant-help

My 1st wife had lots to complain about the way she was treated not just hospital but GPs as well, most of it was the hospital/surgery policy that was wrong. Doing and saying the absolute minimum, the staff knew what needed to be done but weren’t allowed to do it, or couldn’t because of staff shortages.

NotSpaghetti

I would tell them you want xyz/info and are giving them a chance to explain befote you take it to the health ombudsman.

I would give them, say, 14 days and then make a formal complaint to the ombudsman.

At one stage my friend waited 9 months for a reply to a request 😡

It takes on average 5 years + and nobody is going to put their hands up and admit the mistake. Sorry is not part of the vocabulary.

It could cost you a fortune, be very time-consuming and your life may come to a standstill.

I personally do not think it is worth it.

If as a result of injury/loss/pain/suffering, a negligence claim against your Hospital/Health Authority can be proved, then you should be entitled to compensation. And yes, this could be a lengthy process, not simply because any claim would probably be contested, but injuries and ongoing injury would need to be medically assessed over time and......probably the worst aspect..... endless delays could be experienced because all those involved would close ranks faster than if they all had magnets in their sleeves! Medical records, reports, results, etc., often 'go missing', staff involved might have left or be unavailable for interviews etc., etc., You would need to be in it for the long run and find the best legal support possible. Big Girl Pants would have to be worn by you, along with a realistic and patient but determined state of mind !

If, on the other hand, in using the words ' justice and honesty', you're not wanting financial compensation but somebody to admit to wrongdoing, a mistake, negligent handling or a poor outcome of your procedure so that methods might be changed for the good of patients in future, I think it would be a surprise if anyone investigated sufficiently to make you feel less aggrieved once a probably very brief exchange of correspondence had taken place. And in either case, liability would be highly unlikely to be admitted by the Hospital insurers, even if they agreed to compensate you, so you wouldn't have that small satisfaction either.

What is VERY important and what you should do initially is avoid like the plague any dealings with legal companies set up to just do 'no win, no fee' claims. It would be unlikely that your potential claim would initially be assessed by an actual Solicitor. Their client throughput, a bit like insurance companies, is normally enough to keep numbers of young and unqualified clerks dealing with 'phone enquiries, completing standard claim forms over the 'phone and, more often than not, being unable to advise on your many concerns as to the realistic outcome, or otherwise, of your claim.

The best you can do to start, in the event of your wanting to pursue this further, is to look for a firm of Solicitors which has a department dealing with personal injury, medical negligence etc., Contact them - often possible via a contact page on their website - and say that you would like an appointment to see or speak to one of their named P.I specialists in the firm. What usually happens then is that you may be offered a half hour appointment, without charge. Sufficient time to at least briefly discuss the detail of your current problem and get answers to some of your questions, but do make sure you have dates and times and names to hand, and any medical information that might be helpful. Once the lawyer has had sight of this, and spoken to you about what happened, if he or she suggests a claim may be possible they will also suggest to you how this could be funded. If you are told that the claim does not seem viable or that your time and energy will be wasted in trying to pursue something with very little chance of success, then that's the time when you can possibly decide where you wish to go from there. Litigation is not for the faint-hearted so you would need an honest opinion from someone well used to dealing with medical negligence claims to help you make any decisions.

Whatever has gone wrong for you, I do hope that you are beginning to feel better and, if you have been distressed and angered by what has happened, that with professional advice you will be able to resolve those difficulties satisfactorily and put a bad experience behind you. Good luck !

We went to a local solicitor who had experience of this sort of claim. After a chat with her we decided that we weren’t prepared to spend the next few years fighting our case.

Contact CQC via their website, detail your complaint and the response you got from the medical facility. It may be helpful, if appropriate to contact the facility and ask for a copy of all ( I emphasise all) your health records. Good luck

Wishing you luck with this. I would just echo the thought that it's surprising (or maybe not!!!) just how often paperwork mysteriously "gets lost" whenever one brings a claim of any description against anyone. I'm so glad I knew that fact before I started a claim of a very different description one time - because I had to hand over a specific important bit of paperwork to the "opposition" one time and I knew they'd "lose" it. Thus I photocopied it all off before I handed it over and they did duly "lose it" (it never did surface to this day) and I just grinned broadly at them as I went "I knew you'd do that - so I photocopied it all in advance of you doing so. Here - have a copy of my copy I made for myself". They looked rather dumbstruck that I had anticipated them. There is a battery of tricks the "other side" uses in a legal dispute - 1. They try and get things out of time and, if they spot a deadline date that they must start something off/hand something over by they will run it right up to the wire and over it if they think you don't know about that deadline (ie be ready to give them some very firm "kicking" if you see a deadline looming - and make it very plain to them that you know that deadline exists and you know they are deliberately hoping you don't know that fact and they can accidentally on purpose overrun it).

I had an apology from a health authority, I had a miscarriage age 42 and asked the dr what had caused it (I had to have my womb scraped out, as you do, so was about to go under general anaesthetic) he said 'its your age.'
A junior dr present at the time followed me out and said that wasn't correct, as was proved a few months later.
The Health authority apologised and said the dr would not work for them again. Apologies do happen

I agree with Grandamafrench, I would avoid these no win no fee (NWNF) like the plague. You don't want compensation but they do for their advice, which is why they initially seem like a dog with a bone. Someone I know used them in a HR capacity and they took her firm to the wire until the company carried on with the claim at which point the NWNF said she would have to pay x for them to continue. She didn't. It took a lot of her time and the company's and that is what they (NWNF) hope for: that the other party will simply cave in because it is cheaper to pay out than go to court. As people have said it is somewhat different with the NHS who default seems to be deny and protract until the other party gives in.

PALS is a great service. I complained to them a few years back and it was sorted out in minutes AND with an apology.

I used to work in PALS. If you are not happy with the response to your complaint you are signposted to the Ombudsman who will investigate on your behalf. Alternatively we would arrange a meeting with the manager of the department involved and you could take an advocate/friend with you to try and reach a local resolution