Medical Negligence Compensation Claims - Video
A copy of our medical negligence compensation team video should
be viewable below. A transcript of the file is also provided for your convenience.
We hope you find the content useful and informative.
Freephone: 0800 195 8464 or email us
using our online enquiry form.
Transcript - Medical Negligence Compensation Claims
My name is Neil Fearn. I am the head of the medical negligence department of Simpson
Millar and today I would like to talk to you about the department and the work that
we do in that department.
Illness and injury that requires medical treatment and surgery is bad enough. If
a medical accident occurs during that treatment or surgery, the outcome can be dreadful.
At Simpson Millar we have a team of very experienced lawyers who are very used to
acting on behalf of people that have been injured in this way. We have 6 partners
who work within the team. Four of those are on either the Solicitors Regulation
Authority Panel or on the Action for Victims of Medical Accident Panel so their
work has been assessed externally and has been tested to the highest standard. Not
only do we have that external accreditation but the department has a franchise from
the Legal Services Commission who audit us on a regular basis and ensure that the
work that we do is to the highest of standards. The work that we do covers all areas
of clinical practice from obstetrics through to care of the elderly. We do work
in areas such as dental negligence and not only do we restrict ourselves to that
we also cover judicial review cases, inquests, cases presented before the GMC. We
do a full range of health care law issues.
The medical negligence department at Simpson Millar always adopts an approach where
the client is at the centre of arrangements. We want to ensure, at all times, that
your interests are what we take on board, what we consider and what we pursue. Sometimes
we have to impart hard and difficult news but equally we always ensure that the
information that you get is accurate and relates to the claim. We view openness
as being the crucial aspect of any medical negligence claim and any relationship
with our clients.
What do we do at Simpson Millar to ensure a medical negligence claim is successful?
Well there are 3 main things. Firstly we ensure that we understand thoroughly the
claim. We understand what your wishes are and what you want to pursue. We are able
to, secondly, ensure that you get the best funding that is available whether it
is through the Legal Services Commission by legal aid as it is known or through
a Conditional Fee Agreement which is properly known as a no win no fee agreement.
We work in all areas of clinical practice.
One of the areas that is probably our strongest area of specialism is obstetrics
and gynaecology. We undertake a vast amount of work that relates to injuries that
have been caused at birth whether leading to a cerebral palsy injury or Erb’s palsy
injury but having said that, we cover all areas whether it be from dental work or
other areas such as orthopaedics, care of the elderly, treatment of cancer conditions
and the work of general practitioners. We really do not have an area that we have
not looked at in the past. Very often you find people have had surgery, they have
had a very bad outcome from surgery and what happens is that it is only sometime
down the line that they become aware that there is an aspect of their treatment
that was not performed as it should have been and that they are have got a worse
outcome as a result. That very often happens and we see claims where surgery or
treatment was offered, say, many years ago and then suddenly they found out because
of subsequent treatment that they have had or whatever that there was a problem
very much at the beginning and that is something that we can look into. Probably
the most extreme example that I have is a lady who is probably in her 50s at the
moment who is complaining about surgery that should have been performed when she
was in her early years, say five or six years of age, and this is orthopaedic surgery
that should have been performed and she now has a claim.
The best thing to do is try and contact us as soon as possible so that we can give
advice. We can give them pointers as to what should be raised with their treating
documents so that we can hopefully steer them to raise any complaints that they
have and that we can start the claim early. What really does also help is that if
we are instructed early we can get the records very quickly and we can start to
investigate the claim from day one. The worst thing for us is peoples memories fading,
memories of the doctors and obviously the memories of the clients and what we would
like to see is the client as soon as possible after they have realised that something
has gone wrong. We often see clients in hospital. We go to their bedside and we
take instructions form them at that point and yes, that really is sometimes the
best way of proceeding.
If you feel that you have a medical negligence claim please do not hesitate to contact us and we will
be more than happy to talk through what has happened and advise you as to the best
way of proceeding. Please contact us at Simpson Millar. We look forward to hearing
from you.
Thanks
Neil Fearn
Head of Medical Negligence
Call us now on freephone: 0800 195 8464 or send us an email using our
online enquiry form.
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