Medical Negligence Compensation Claims

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by: Stebee
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Word Count: 244
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 Time: 6:37 PM
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The terms medical negligence, medical malpractice and clinical negligence are often seen as technical jargon, and may not be understood by those who have not been trained in the health profession. The definitions are in fact quite simple. Medical negligence and clinical negligence essentially mean exactly the same thing, which is that a health professional has failed to give the requisite standard of care to a patient that they have been looking after. Medical malpractice, on the other hand, means that an act has occurred on the part of the health professional that should not have, and that this has led to negative circumstances for the patient. An example of this would be if a doctor gave out the wrong set of drugs for an illness, for example.

Together, these three umbrella terms are defined as an act or omission from a health professional, which leads to an undesirable incident for the patient. Omissions are likely to occur when the correct procedures are not followed by the health professional. However, a medical compensation claim cannot be brought by the patient in question unless the health worker's incorrect actions have led to an unwanted negative outcome. There are various terms that are counted as being medical malpractice, for example medical misdiagnosis, in which a doctor either fails to diagnose a patient with the illness that they actually have, or accidentally diagnoses them with something else.

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In cases not too disimilair from the ones highlighted above, the patient has a right to persue for a medical negligence compensation claim, but only if the incorrect diagnosis has led to a further incident.