The term “medical accident compensation” covers a variety of situations where you may have suffered an injury or deterioration in an existing condition due to medical negligence or professional malpractice. From the day you are born until the day you die, there are all types of medical accidents which can happen to you – from sustaining a birth injury whilst you are being delivered into this world to being misdiagnosed with a harmless condition whilst developing a fatal disease.
Many medical accidents are unavoidable and are just responses to medical emergencies, nut you may be entitled to claim medical accident compensation when the circumstances were avoidable and you sustained an injury due to somebody else´s negligence. The “somebody else” may be your family doctor, a dentist, midwife or chiropractor, or somebody who is overworked at your local hospital and made a mistake due to fatigue.
All medical practitioners must have medical insurance to cover the times when they make mistakes which lead to injuries to their patients and claims are made against them for medical accident compensation. Most medical practitioners would be absolutely horrified to learn that they had made a mistake that has caused physical suffering and psychological trauma, and rarely is it the medical practitioner who causes a problem when it comes to making a claim for medical accident compensation – it is more likely to be their insurance company.
Making a Claim for Medical Accident Compensation
When you are making a claim for medical accident compensation, it is always in your best interests to use the services of a specialised personal injury claims solicitor with experience in cases of medical negligence and malpractice. Because of the potential size of medical accident compensation awards, the legal teams that work behind the scenes at the medical insurance companies are only willing for their client to admit liability once your solicitor has constructed a watertight case.
Your solicitor will need the services of a medical expert in the field related to your injury to examine you and give his professional opinion on the level of your injuries and the extent of medical negligence which caused them. A case will have to be prepared which would win a trial, and on the basis that your solicitor would only take a strong case before the court, it is more than likely that a negotiated settlement for your medical accident compensation would be reached before any hearing takes place.
Issues with Claims for Medical Accident Compensation
There are three main issues with claims for medical accident compensation which can occur, depending on your personal circumstance – Who? What? And When?
The “Who?” concerns determining which medical practitioner was responsible for causing your injury. If you have been to see your local doctor with a worrying lump in your breast, and he sends you away with unwarranted reassurance that you have nothing more than a cyst, then he is obviously liable to pay medical accident compensation should you later discover you have breast cancer.
“What?” relates to exactly what happened and if you had any part in contributing to the medical accident. Although medical negligence may still have occurred, if you failed to attend a check-up, take medicine that was prescribed for you or endanger your health by any of your own actions, this may affect the ruling in your favour and reduce the amount of medical accident compensation you receive.
The third issue – “When?” – refers to the Statute of Limitations, which allows you two years from the date of knowledge of your medical accident in which to make a claim for medical accident compensation. This is not two years from the date on which the original misdiagnosis happened, but the date on which it was discovered and correctional treatment commenced.
In claims for medical accident compensation in which children are the victims, cases have to be presented to court within two years from when they reach the age of majority. If a claim for medical accident compensation is made before their eighteenth birthday, the child must be represented by a parent or guardian as their “next friend”.
Medical Accident Compensation Solicitors
All the above issues are factors to be considered when making a claim for medical accident compensation, and a good specialised personal injury claims solicitor will be able to answer any questions you have on these topics or any other subject related to medical accident compensation. If you would like to find out more about the services of a specialised personal injury claims solicitor, you are invited to call our free advice telephone service on 
. This service has been established to provide helpful and practical advice to people considering a claim for medical accident compensation and will enable you to speak directly with an experienced solicitor with whom you can discuss your personal circumstances.
Our helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and all calls are treated with the strictest confidence. We have a call-back service for clients who prefer us to ring them, and if you leave your contact details in the call-back box one of our team will get back in touch with you at your preferred time. Please note that you are under no obligation to pursue a claim for medical accident compensation once you have spoken with our solicitors, and no pressure will be put on you to do so.