Clinical negligence, formerly known as 'medical negligence', is the process by which a patient takes his or her medical attendants to a civil court for compensation. It is not about professional conduct or terms of service.
Clinical negligence is when healthcare professionals physically or mentally hurt you because of the standard of health care they gave you.
Clinical negligence is proved using a 3-part test: The test looks at:
that the doctor owed a duty of care to the patient, that the duty of care was breached, and as a direct result of the breach the patient suffered harm.
You can experience negligence from different medical people or teams. These can include:
an individual healthcare professional, such as a psychiatrist, or a healthcare service, such as a mental health team.
Below are some examples of negligence.
Doctors didn’t notice symptoms of possible mental illness. Your hospital discharged you too early which caused you harm. Your mental health team didn’t give you the right treatment and this caused you harm. Your doctor gave you the wrong medication which had a bad effect on you.
You can make a clinical negligence claim about both NHS and private treatment. Clinical negligence is also called ‘medical negligence’.
You may be able to make a claim if a family member has died because of negligence. You can claim:
bereavement damages of up to £12,980 if your husband, wife or unmarried child under 18 has died, and for ‘loss of dependency’, if you were financially dependent on the person who has died.
NHS Resolution are a part of the department of Health and Social Care. They deal with clinical negligence claims. You can find their contact details in the Useful Contacts section at the bottom of this page.