A hospital injury claim for compensation can fall into one of two categories. Either you could have sustained a physical injury through an accident such as a trip or fall on hospital premises, or you may be a victim of medical negligence. In both instances, you are entitled to compensation where it can be proven that there was a duty of care that was not maintained. However, the respective ways in which a hospital injury claim for compensation can be made differ widely.
Where your injury is due to a slip or a fall, you need not be a patient to make a hospital injury claim. You could be a visitor to somebody recovering from an illness or even a member of staff who works in the hospital. This type of hospital injury claim is regarded as a personal injury and claims for compensation would be submitted to the Injuries Board Ireland after you have received appropriate medical attention.
A hospital injury claim for compensation, where the injury has been caused by medical negligence, has to be pursued through the courts, as it has to be demonstrated that the treatment – or lack of it – that was responsible for your injury was avoidable, and you would have been treated in a different fashion by another medical practitioner. Consequently, a hospital injury claim relating to medical negligence is often settled on the opinion of another physician, rather than on evidence alone.
Irrespective of whichever type of hospital injury you have suffered, it is best to pursue a hospital injury claim for compensation with the assistance of a specialised personal injury claims solicitor. At a time when you may still be recovering from your injuries, and not feeling able to get involved with application forms and “letters of claim”, it can be to your benefit to use the services of a specialised personal injury claims solicitor who is familiar with the most effective ways of making a hospital injury claim.
Making a Hospital Injury Claim
A hospital injury claim that is to be submitted to the Injuries Board Ireland consists of completing a four page document. It can be very difficult to explain all the circumstances of your injury within its pages if you have not had extensive experience of doing so previously. An online version of the hospital injury claim application form can be completed instead – except when claims for children are involved – and this can be even more frustrating to communicate the events surrounding your accident.
Should the hospital deny liability for your accident or claim that you contributed to your own injuries by your contributory actions, the Injuries Board Ireland will decline to assess your hospital injury claim for compensation and issue you with an authorisation to pursue your hospital injury claim through the court system. This might also be the case if the hospital contests the amount of compensation assessed by the Injuries Board Ireland.
Where a hospital injury claim for compensation is due to medical negligence, a solicitor will be required to collate evidence for your case and seek disclosure (with your permission) of all the relevant medical records to present to a medical expert. The medical expert will also have to make an independent assessment of your hospital injury claim and make his findings known to the court. Quite often, a hospital injury claim which involves medical negligence can be a protracted and complex affair.
The length of time in which you have to make a hospital injury claim for compensation is also an important consideration. With personal injury claims, the Statute of Limitations allows for two years from the date of the accident in which to make a hospital injury claim. Those whose cases revolve around medical negligence have two years from the “date of knowledge” in which to file a hospital injury claim for compensation – the date of knowledge being the date at which they discovered that the medical negligence had taken place rather than the actual date on which it happened.
Seeking Help with a Hospital Injury Claim
Due to the many different circumstances in which one can sustain an injury whilst under the care of a hospital, we have established a free hospital injury claim telephone service which you are invited to call for helpful and impartial advice. The phone lines are manned by experienced personal injury claims solicitors, familiar with both the slip and fall type of injury that can be sustained in a hospital, and the more complex medical negligence hospital injury claims.
Our free advice line number is 
, and our helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to enable you to discuss your hospital injury claim with a member of our team. We also operate a call-back service if now is not a convenient time to call – there is a form on the left hand side of the page where you can complete your contact details: one of our team will contact you at a time when it is more suitable for you to talk.
Because of the length of time that it may take to produce a hospital injury claim, we recommend that you do not delay before contacting our free advice service. If you subsequently choose to proceed with a hospital injury claim for compensation, it can be a lengthy process to compile a comprehensive case and we would not wish any client to be time-barred from claiming compensation for injuries caused by somebody else´s negligence.
Our service is completely free and you are never under any obligation to pursue a hospital injury claim once you have spoken to us. Naturally, all calls to our free advice line are in the strictest confidence and all possible discretion is used in our enquiries. We would request, however, that you do not contact our free advice line if you have already engaged a solicitor, as it is unethical for us to provide second opinions.