If your GP does not provide a good standard of care which results in an injury, exacerbation of a problem or illness then we would suggest that you consider making a claim. GPs have to respect guidelines set in the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and a failure to follow them may result in a situation of negligent treatment or diagnosis and the patient can suffer as a result.
The level of compensation is extremely varied, this is simply because of the scale of the problem the negligence has caused, pre-existing issues, whether the negligence has shortened life and so on. As a general rule, you have 3 years to bring such a claim.
Common GP negligence claims include:
Failure to correctly diagnose
It may be that your GP failed to diagnose things properly (if this involves cancer please see our separate section). The most common diagnostic errors which would trigger a claim include:-
- Lack of duty of care in diagnosing a suitable treatment;
- Failure to refer you to a specialist/hospital;
- Lack of an expected standard of care through not conducting a medical examination.
Failure to investigate
- Where there is a doubt but to save time the GP did not bother referring you for further tests;
- Lack of a fair investigation (medical examination) to determine the problem; and
- Did not take any medical history into account.
Paperwork error
- Not reading your records leads them to have missed what would have been, in all likelihood, an indicator of the current problem (this is especially relevant regarding locum doctors who tend to treat what they see without checking a patients history); and
- As above but their negligence has resulted in a misdiagnosis of the issue.
Medication errors
These errors have caused death, stating the wrong dose, or not taking into account the patients medical history can lead to death in certain situations.
If you are in any doubt about the medication you have been prescribed, or you think that the GP did not pay attention to / did not know your medical history then you should check with the dispensing pharmacist before taking any medication, the national helpline (call 111) can give you advice over the telephone
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