The capacity to affect another human being’s life is something that has both fascinated and terrified many people. Hence, the medical profession or that of any health worker is not without its risks, and likewise not without its benefits.
While the capacity to make a human error applies to nearly every profession, the situation is elevated to a greater extent in medical negligence. Why? Because with medicine and health, the stakes are raised – this is a life we’re talking about.
Diabetes And It’s Rise
Diabetes is a multi-factorial disorder – hence, it can be influenced by several factors and can be manifested at any age. For example, diabetes can raise its ugly head later on in life, but also in childhood and can particularly unbalance a teenager or young adult, only just starting to fine their feet in on their pathway to adulthood. To this extent it can take a patient completely by surprise and render them highly vulnerable to significant changes needed that will affect every aspect of their day to day life. Highly vulnerable patients deserve empathetic medical care and advice and follow-up through a period of adjustment and beyond that initial period.
Unfortunately, once a person has developed diabetes, it is generally not a curable condition (some patients recover from Type 2 diabetes after bariatric (weight-loss) surgery. Some patients may find it goes into remission if they start to look after themselves properly, to exercise and to eat healthily and get to a healthy weight. However, for others, management has to be by either taking medication every day, in tablet form, or by way of insulin injections.
It is extremely important that health care providers properly monitor patients who are clearly at risk of developing diabetes, and those who have already been diagnosed. This is because the condition of diabetes can worsen, leading to more aggressive treatment being required (such as moving from diet control, to diet control and tablets, or moving from tablets to injections) and failure to pick up on this can have the most serious consequences, such as loss of eyesight and even sudden death.
This is not scare-mongering. A high blood sugar level is actually poisonous to the human body. This can be particularly damaging to small blood vessels, such as those supplying eye-sight. Badly controlled diabetes can also lead to problems in the outer parts of a person’s limbs, which is why diabetic patients are at higher risk of amputation than the ordinary population. This can start with a simple case of a cut, or blister that refuses to heal. This is because there is no longer a good blood supply to the outer extremities.
Medical Solicitors has acted in various cases where elderly patients have been neglected, leading to cuts, or blisters on their toes eventually turning into gangrenous wounds. The patients end up being rushed to a hospital when it is usually too late to save them from having to undergo an amputation of a toe, or even all of the toes and part of their foot. This can lead to signifcaint mobility problems and loss of independence and ability to work. For patients suffering serious injuries, clearly it is important they have access to justice and that they do bring a diabetes negligence claim.
Is it fair to File Compensation Claims against Your Health Care Provider?
In short, yes, it is fair! Why should you feel guilty about seeking justice when awful things have happened to you or a loved one? You cannot claim compensation simply because there has been poor care and something bad might have happened, but if there have been adverse physical, and usually also, financial consequences, then justice should be sought.
The death of a loved one, or the worsening of a medical condition that should have been improved, can lead to devastating consequences for a patient and their families. Getting answers about responsibility can be overwhelmingly important in these circumstances, with the opportunity to potentially lead to changes in the NHS system that might prevent similar future occurrences for other patients.
What the general public do not know is that the NHS actually budgets for medical negligence claims and sets a sum aside (less than 1% of its budget) as a fund for compensation and legal costs. In reality, the NHS self-insures and thus, escapes huge liabilities for public insurance premiums!
Medico-Legal Practitioners
Medical Negligence claims are centuries old. Hence, this branch of the law is now acknowledged as a highly niche and specialist area of legal practice. Medical Solicitors is one of a few hundred specialist practices around the country, but one of only a handful of truly niche law firms that only handle medical negligence claims on behalf of patients.
What separates medical negligence specialists from other lawyers is the fact that they have extensive experience of past cases to apply their knowledge to new cases and better assess prospects of success. Clients are not given false hope and unmeritorious claims are turned away early on (empathetically) rather than encouraging clients to unreasonably enter into litigation where there really are no realistic hopes of success. Dabblers in the market beware! Check that your firm has at least one registered “Panel” specialist in this field. This is a registration with the SRA, Law Society, SCIL AVMA or APIL only.
Specialists WILL offer a ‘no case, no fee’ agreement (Conditional Fee Agreement) for reasonable cases, so they do not get paid unless the case is won for the client. Beware firms that ask you for money upfront and seek a second opinion elsewhere! They are probably ‘dabblers’ in the market, without specialist knowledge. They may advise you that your case is too difficult for a no win, no fee agreement. Seek advice elsewhere!
Medical Solicitors
Based in the United Kingdom, Medical Solicitors are a team of medico-legal experts who have decades worth of experience among themselves in the field of medical negligence.
Their experience isn’t limited to one case in particular, or a few medical areas. Medical Solicitors has not one, but three senior (Grade A ) fee-earners who head up the whole team, with 80 years of experience between them, covering an extensive range of medical conditions. Caroline, Matthew and Christine can speedily and accurately assess prospects of success in new enquiries and, where the firm does need help from a medical expert to come to a view about a potential case, there is a 6-lever arch register of expert witnesses, from around the UK, with whom Medical Solicitors work. The right medical expert can make or break a case. Dabblers do not have access to this ‘support system’.
The vast majority of cases go forward under no win, no fee agreements which means clients do not have to put their hands into their own pockets and pay for the case as it is investigated and pursued.