Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
First off, let us take a look at the definition of clinical negligence. According to experts, this is a situation where a doctor gives you a low-standard treatment that could cause harm to you. This means that the doctor give you a harmful treatment on purpose. This may sound like an easy legal description but it is not. In other words, when a doctor treats you badly, this can be considered clinical negligence.
If you are sure that you have been treated unfairly by your doctor, you can consider getting legal assistance. For this purpose, you should always try to find a legal expert. In other words, you should hire an expert medical malpractice lawyer.
The first thing you need to do is to make a formal complaint to the person in charge of the health care, especially if you are in hospital. Moreover, you should make a formal complaint and ask for detailed response. If the response does not satisfy you, then your next move should be to make a complaint to the complaint manager of the hospital.
If you have been discharged from the hospital, then you should complaint directly to the complaint manager of the hospital. You can also make an appointment to meet the consultant who is in charge of giving you treatments. You can then discuss the situation with them in details.
Here it is important to note that there is sometimes a 12-week limit when it comes to making a complaint to the hospital. Normally, you will get a response from the hospital within 20 business days.
If you are not satisfied with the reply from the hospital, then your next move should be to ask for a referral for what is called Independent Professional Review in a period of 28 days. Normally, a couple independent consultants carry out this type of review. Their job will be to review the treatment your received from the doctor. Aside from this, they will obtain evidence from the witnesses and the medical professionals associated with the treatment. Moreover, they may review the medical notes as well.
You must do it within 12 months from the day you know about the potential medical negligence. It is important to note that there is no guarantee that your claim will be taken seriously.
The last thing you can do is to consult an expert medical malpractice lawyer to have your case evaluated in order to see if you can take the case to the court. As said earlier, it is better to consult a lawyer before taking other steps.