Medical negligence and misdiagnosis

Many of us have to visit the doctor each year for both routine check ups, such as smear tests, and if we are feeling unwell. As medicine is such a complex science and most people have little knowledge of diseases and illnesses, we often accept the doctor's diagnosis and advice as correct without a second thought.

Unfortunately, doctors are not always right and sometimes errors of diagnosis happen. In some cases, this amounts to medical negligence. Around a third of people in a study undertaken in the UK told researchers that either they or someone they knew had been misdiagnosed by their doctor.

How can a wrong diagnosis happen?
There is a range of ways in which an incorrect diagnosis can happen, including:

• Failing to take tests or select appropriate tests for the patient

• Misinterpreting the patient's medical records, tests and/or scans

• Failing to act after the patient has expressed concern

• Mixing up medical records

Not all misdiagnoses are the same. When testing is being carried out and a misdiagnosis occurs, this may be a result of either a false positive or a false negative.

A false positive occurs when a person who is clear of an illness or injury is incorrectly diagnosed with suffering from it. This person may be given very strong drugs with side effects and other treatments in order to combat the disease that they do not have, potentially causing serious personal injury.

A false negative occurs when a person who has an illness or injury is not diagnosed with it. They will not then be given the correct treatment that they would need to either prevent the development of the illness or to promote healing. The person may then suffer personal injury when their illness develops as a result of no action being taken.

Sometimes a misdiagnosis will occur when a person is diagnosed with an illness or injury other than the one from which they are actually suffering. This may result in them being given inappropriate treatment and medicine which will fail to resolve their symptoms. Their own illness may get worse during this time.

The effect of the misdiagnosis
In some cases, the misdiagnosis may not have any impact on the person's wellbeing. The actual illness and the diagnosed illness may be treatable with the same medicine, in which case no actual personal injury will have been suffered as a result of the incorrect diagnosis.

A ruling was made in a case known as Gregg v Scott in 2005 that set an important precedent in the area of misdiagnoses. This case meant that a misdiagnosis which resulted in the patient having less chance of avoiding injury is not the basis for a medical negligence claim.

For example, a person goes to his doctor with a medical complaint and the doctor finds nothing to be the matter with him. After six months, the person is diagnosed with an illness that gives him a 20% chance to live for more than five years. If the doctor had correctly diagnosed him, he would have had a 40% chance to live for over five years.

The patient would not be able to claim compensation for this 20% loss of chance because on the balance of probabilities, he would have been more likely to die than survive even if he had been correctly diagnosed.

However, if a patient would have had a 60% chance of five year survival with a correct diagnosis and only has a 40% chance of survival due to misdiagnosis, this would have been compensable.

Medical negligence compensation
The law surrounding medical negligence can be extremely complex, as can be seen from the above case. However, our panel of personal injury solicitors are extremely skilled at handling medical negligence cases and have brought many to a successful conclusion.

They are all members of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel, which means that they are assessed on a regular basis to ensure that their customers are getting the best possible service. Read more about our medical negligence solicitors.

We understand that making a medical negligence claim can feel daunting for many people. In order to make this process more straightforward, we make a promise to our customers that we will only discuss cases in plain English, not complicated legal jargon.

We find that customers often benefit from understanding what is happening with their case as this knowledge allows them to feel much more comfortable about taking legal action. Read more about the medical negligence claim process.

Many of the people who come to us to claim medical negligence compensation have been through a lot of anxiety and stress. We aim to make claiming easy and simple so that it is one less thing to worry about and you can concentrate on recovering from your illness or injury.

If you would like to find out more about medical negligence compensation, please telephone 0800 10 757 95 or fill in an online claim form.