When a patient visits the hospital or clinic, they would often expect to receive professional medical treatments from the medical practitioners in order to cure any medical issues that the patients are experiencing. Though, due to human errors, there are some cases where medical practitioners may make mistakes such as giving a wrong diagnosis, administering the wrong treatment, failing to act on time or even mistakes during surgery, which could potentially worsen the patients condition. This is known as ‘medical negligence’.
Medical negligence could be unintentional or intentional, but the consequences towards the patients may be grave. This may result in patients taking legal action to seek compensation for the damages the ‘mistake’ has caused them.
However, not all mistakes are accepted to be labelled as medical negligence. Generally, there are two factors that cold categorize mistakes as medical negligence:
- An unintentional mistake, which otherwise could have been avoided if performed by a competent medical practitioner.
- A mistake that resulted in damage to a patient’s health which did not exist previously.
Once it has been established that the mistake committed was in fact medical negligence, the patient can then proceed to take legal actions to seek compensation for the damages that occurred.
What Damages Can A Patient Claim For?
There are generally 2 types of damages a patient (plaintiff) can sue for:
- Special Damages
Special damages are quantifiable losses, such as medical expenses or property damages.
In order to incur for special damages, supporting documents can be submitted. For instance, medicals bills, contracts or agreements.
- General Damages
General damages are intangible and non-monetary losses that includes, emotional distress, pain and suffering, trauma, physical or mental impairment and possibly loss of future incomes.
In order to claim for general damages, an expert opinion needs to be obtained to prove the physical or emotional damages that the medical negligence has caused.
Procedure to Make Claims
Before proceeding to seek claims for the medical negligence that has occurred, the plaintiff is advised to obtain the medical records and reports, which acts as supporting documents to prove the occurrence of negligence.
A medical report, made by a medical practitioner, is a summary of the background check and procedures carried out to treat the patients. A medical record on the other hand is the compilation of all documents used by the medical practitioners from the start till the end of the treatment, which provides detailed information on the processes that occurred.
Next, the plaintiff should seek an expert’s advice to truly know if the act was in fact negligence or not. The expert should have adequate experience and expertise in order to ensure that the medical reports and records can be diligently scanned through to detect any possibilities for negligence, before proceeding to sue.
The plaintiff can then choose to bring the matter forward to the court to undergo trial, or the insurance company of the hospital may decide to settle the matter out of court (legally advised). In both ways, the plaintiff can still be able to claim monetary compensation for the damages incurred.
