Making Medical Claims: Am I a Victim of Clinical Negligence?

Things go wrong during medical treatment for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, a patient has to accept that the treatment he or she has undergone may lead to complications without anyone having done anything wrong.  On other occasions, however, a patient may suffer injuries that are a direct result of an identifiable clinician making an identifiable mistake in his or her care.  We tend to refer to this kind of mistake as "clinical negligence".

The law has a very precise definition of clinical negligence (see below).  In a legal context, it can sometimes take many years - and the assistance of a number of senior doctors and lawyers   - to argue about whether a given incident was an instance of clinical negligence or not.  A solicitor will not be able to tell you whether you have suffered as a result of clinical negligence or not; however, he or she should be able to give you a preliminary view about whether you have a clinical negligence claim which is, at least, worth investigating.