What is a Misdiagnosis Medical Negligence?
Misdiagnosis can occur where a medical practitioner fails to correctly identify the cause of the patient’s symptoms, fails to make a diagnosis or fails to take the necessary steps to achieve a diagnosis for the patient. This can occur where the medical practitioner mistakes the patient’s symptoms for those of a different medical condition, provides the patient with the incorrect treatment or fails to make a referral to the proper specialist on foot of the patient’s symptoms.
What is a Delayed Diagnosis?
A delayed diagnosis can occur where a medical practitioner fails to take the necessary action to ensure a diagnosis is made in a timely manner. This can occur where the medical practitioner fails to adequately investigate the patient’s complaints, thereby delaying the diagnosis unnecessarily.
What is a Medical Negligence Claim for Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis?
Where misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis occurs as a result of substandard medical care and the patient suffers injuries or an adverse outcome, they can seek compensation through a medical negligence claim. The injuries or adverse outcome may occur from being provided with the incorrect treatment or only receiving treatment after unnecessary delay, when the patient’s condition has deteriorated.
What is the Process Involved in Making a Medical Negligence Claim for Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis?
The first step is to speak to a medical negligence Solicitor who has expertise in dealing with negligent diagnosis claims. Your Solicitor will take detailed instructions from you about the medical treatment you received leading up to your diagnosis and how this was handled.
They will need to request copies of all of your medical records, including your records relating to the treatment received from your first complaint to your medical practitioner leading up to your diagnosis, and relating to the treatment received after your diagnosis.
Once the records are received, your Solicitor will carefully review them and will discuss them with you.
They will then decide what expert reports are required in your circumstances and will brief the relevant independent expert(s) with your instructions and copies of the medical records. The expert(s) will be asked to provide reports dealing with liability and causation.
Once a liability report is to hand and the expert is able to identify a breach of duty in the care provided to you, legal proceedings can be issued. Your Solicitor will then brief a barrister and ask them to draft proceedings.
The draft proceedings will be reviewed with you before being issued in court and served on the Defendant(s).
What Do I Need to Prove in a Medical Negligence Claim?
You will need to prove two things:
- Liability – that there was a breach of duty in your medical care in failing to provide you with a correct diagnosis or failing to provide a diagnosis in a timely manner. You must be able to show that no reasonably competent doctor with the same qualifications, skills and expertise, faced with the same set of circumstances, at the same time would have acted in the same way.
- Causation – that you sustained injuries or suffered an adverse outcome as a result of the misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, and that the injuries or adverse outcome were caused by the said breach of duty.
Independent experts will be briefed to review the relevant medical records and provide reports on liability and causation. The liability report will usually be provided by an expert with the same specialty and qualifications as the medical practitioner who provided the medical treatment complained of. You may need multiple causation reports, depending on your circumstances and your Solicitor will advise you on what is required.
What are the Time Limits for Making a Medical Negligence Claim?
The time limit for medical negligence claims is two years from the date the cause of action accrues or two years from the date the Plaintiff first had the requisite knowledge, as under Section 2 of the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991. Every case is different, and you Solicitor will advise you on what the time limits are for you, depending on your particular circumstances.
It can take some time to gather all the relevant information and documentation before legal proceedings can be issued. It is, therefore, very important that you consult with a medical negligence solicitor as early as possible if you intend to make a claim to ensure that you understand the claims process and what is required of you from an early date.
Fachtna O’Driscoll – Medical Negligence Solicitors Cork
Fachtna O’Driscoll Solicitors are specialists in medical negligence and can guide you through a claim, with efficiency and clear, comprehensive advice.
You can contact our Medical Negligence Solicitors Cork team by calling 021 427 8131 or by emailing info@fodlaw.ie.
