The increasing costs of medical negligence lawsuits are having direct and devastating consequences on Britain’s General Practitioner service, according to a new survey. The government says that it needs to recruit 5,000 new GPs by 2020 to cope with demand of the increasing workload, but this year has seen the number of GPs falling by 100 per month.
Whereas doctors in hospitals have their insurance premiums paid by the hospital or hospital trust for which they work, in the case of GPs the responsibility lies on them to pay their own premiums and some say that they are now paying up to a fifth of their pre-tax income on insurance. According to the BMA (British Medical Association) GP’s pay has reduced by 11 per cent in real terms since 2008. At the same time the annual rise of insurance premiums has averaged 10 per cent, and it continues to rise as the costs of medical negligence cases increase.
So is it right to sue the NHS?
The vast majority of doctors, nurses and health professionals in the UK are highly qualified, caring people who want to help others in the best way that they can. Many work in high-pressure situations and make the difference between life and death on a daily basis. It is incredibly rare that incidents happen due to malice or general incompetence, but if mistakes are made in someone’s care, and those mistakes go on to leave the patient in a worse state than when they arrived to receive care, then someone has to be responsible. In some cases it might be an issue with machinery that has gone wrong, in others it could be a case of missing a vital sign, or not noticing an issue until damage has occurred; in any situation such as this the patient who is left injured or even dead must have some recompense – if for no other reason than to highlight the issue and ensure it is not repeated.
In some cases when mistakes are made a simple apology can be appropriate, but if you were to be injured as a result of your treatment and were unable to return to work, then a financial settlement can be the difference between a life worth living and a miserable, abbreviated existence.
Our solicitors have a great deal of experience in handling cases of medical negligence and will swiftly be able to identify if you have a case, and if so, how much your claim could be worth. Contact us today for a free, no obligations discussion about your case and let us see if we can help you get the compensation you deserve.