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How To Report A Negligent Doctor

By Lewis Cobain. Last Updated 3rd April 2023. In this online guide, we look at how to report a negligent doctor, and also how to make a compensation claim if a doctor has harmed you through medical negligence. Please note though, that if you have used a personal injury solicitor to make a personal injury claim in the past, even though the process of making a clinical negligence claim seems similar, it is subtly different. Please read this guide carefully to learn what these differences are.

how to report a negligent doctor

How to report a negligent GP guide

Every claim has its own unique set of circumstances. And although we have tried to cover as much as we can in this guide, there may be questions that this guide doesn’t answer for you. In this case, our claims team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0800 073 8804. One of our expert advisors will answer your questions for you and then explain how we can provide you with a solicitor to work on your claim for you.

Select A Section:

  1. Negligent Doctor – How Do I Know If I’ve Suffered Due To Negligence?
  2. How Do I Prove My Doctor Acted Negligently?
  3. Contact The NHS In Your Region
  4. Contact The NHS ombudsman To Report Your Doctor
  5. How To Raise A Concern With The General Medical Council
  6. When And How The GMC Investigate Reports Of Negligence By Doctors
  7. What Steps Could The GMC Take Against A Negligent Doctor?
  8. Victim Support And Patient Liaison
  9. Examples Of Medical Negligence Payouts
  10. Special Damages Claimable In Medical Negligence Cases
  11. No Win No Fee Claims Against Negligent Doctors Or GPs

Negligent Doctor – How Do I Know If I’ve Suffered Due To Negligence?

Medical professionals have a duty of care to provide a minimum standard of care.

Negligent doctors could breach their duty of care in a number of ways. For example, you could be given a misdiagnosis of cancer or be subject to surgical errors.

However, in order to make a valid claim against a negligent doctor, the following criteria must apply:

  • Your doctor owed you a duty of care
  • They breached this duty
  • You suffered harm as a result of their negligence

Get in touch for free legal advice at any time. Our advisors can help you with questions such as, ‘how to report a doctor in the UK for clinical medical negligence’.

Categories Of Negligence By Doctors

Some of the forms that clinical negligence could take include:

  • A misdiagnosis (wrongful diagnosis).
  • A delay in making the right diagnosis.
  • Medical negligence injures a patient.
  • Administering unnecessary or wrong treatment.
  • Administering the right treatment wrongly.

These are just a few examples of negligence, there are more.

How Do I Prove My Doctor Acted Negligently?

Once you know how to report a negligent doctor, what happens when you file a complaint against a doctor? Well, much depends on whether you can prove that your GP has acted in a negligent manner. This means proving the harm you suffered would not have occurred if the GP had not taken the action they did. Put simply, the GP must have caused the harm you suffered, with no possibility of the harm being caused by something else.

You may need to use the services of an impartial medical professional to build a case and prove that negligence took place. If you would like some help and advice on how to go about this, please speak to our claims team today.

Contact The NHS In Your Region

You can complain about a GP in the UK to the NHS. The first thing to do is to follow the complaints procedure of the surgery. You can ask to see a copy of the procedure the surgery itself follows related to complaints. You can then follow this procedure to make your formal complaint about the surgery. NHS complaints need to contain the following information:

  • The event that you are complaining about.
  • How the event happened and the key dates.
  • What you would like to see as a resolution to your complaint.
  • How the NHS can get in touch with you.

The NHS must acknowledge your complaint within three days of it being made. The NHS must then investigate it fully. You can make your complaint in writing, in person, or by email. You cannot phone a complaint. 

If you’ve complained to the service provider directly and you’re not happy with the result, you can’t then go on to raise this to the relevant clinical commissioning group (CCG) who are responsible for commissioning service in the area.  However, if you’re unhappy with how the provider has handled your complaint, for example, due to delays you’ve experienced, then you can raise this with the CCG. You can contact your local CCG through this online tool.

If you’d like more details on how to report a negligent doctor, or would like free legal advice around making a claim, please get in touch with us today. 

Contact The NHS Ombudsman To Report Your Doctor

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your medical negligence complaint that the NHS has come up with, you can take your case further to the Health Service Ombudsman (HSO). This is a parliamentary regulatory body. 

To be able to do this, you must have received the definitive reply to your complaint from the NHS. If it has taken too long to receive this response, the HSO could assist you with this as well. The HSO will generally only look into complaints that are less than 12 months old, although there could be extenuating circumstances that the HSO believes are reasons to look into an older complaint.

If you’re interested in knowing how to report a negligent doctor when the NHS or HSO hasn’t resolved the issue to your satisfaction, please read on to our next section. 

How To Raise A Concern With The General Medical Council

Your final option, if the NHS or HSO has failed to resolve your complaint satisfactorily, is to take the complaint to the General Medical Council (GMC). The General Medical Council is the regulatory body overseeing medical professionals in the UK. When it comes to how to report a doctor to the GMC, you will need to keep the following three things in mind:

  1. Is the GMC the right organisation to approach for help? (for example, it may be appropriate to begin a compensation claim instead of approaching the GMC).
  2. Can the GMC resolve your issue to your satisfaction? In some cases, such as the victim seeking compensation, the GMC would not be the best choice. Instead, the services of a solicitor would be needed.
  3. Can you provide the GMC with everything it needs to look into your complaint? If your complaint has already been turned down due to insufficient information by the NHS or the HSO, then the GMC might not be able to help either.

When And How The GMC Investigate Reports Of Negligence By Doctors

The GMC will only begin an investigation into a doctor’s conduct in certain circumstances. Examples of these kinds of circumstances could include:

  • When repeated, serious mistakes have been made.
  • Not taking care of a patient’s needs properly.
  • Assaulting or sexually assaulting a patient.
  • Fraudulent activities.
  • When a crime has been committed.
  • When a GP has abused their position.
  • Discrimination against a patient.
  • Harassment of co-workers or patients.
  • Filing to maintain patient confidentiality.
  • Serious issues with English communication.

If the GMC does decide to start an investigation, it will start to collect and examine the evidence, such as:

  • Documented evidence such as medical records and test results.
  • Testimony from witnesses.
  • Reports form impartial experts.
  • A performance assessment of the GP.
  • A health assessment of the GP.
  • An assessment of the GP’s ability to speak English.

What Steps Could The GMC Take Against A Negligent Doctor?

If you report a negligent GP to the GMC and it finds that your complaint is valid, then there are certain actions the organisation can take. This starts with interim sanctions that could include stopping the GP from practising medicine until the complaint has been investigated and resolved fully.

  • Once the investigation is complete, if the complaint is upheld, the following actions may be taken:
    • The GP is issued with a warning.
    • The GP must sign a document stating they are undertaking efforts to improve the way they work.
    • A full Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MTB) will be instigated to investigate things further. Which could ultimately, in the worst case, see the doctor struck off.

Victim Support And Patient Liaison

When a complaint about a GP is made to the GMC, the organisation can offer some help to patients who have been harmed. The Patient Liaison Service is responsible for providing this help.

The patient will be able to talk over their complaint face to face with an expert and find out what is going to happen, when and why. The patient will also have all of their questions answered at this time. Once the investigation has reached a conclusion, a further meeting will be arranged with the patient to discuss the outcome.

Having established how to report a negligent doctor, you may be wondering how much you could receive in a compensation claim. If this is the case, then you’ll find our next section of use. 

Examples Of Medical Negligence Payouts

In this section we explore potential compensation amounts for medical negligence. As every claim is different, we can’t provide exact figures. In addition, special damages may be included in some claims, which will be discussed in the next section.

Firstly, we investigate general damages. In a successful claim, general damages are paid out for the pain and suffering you experienced.

Bracketed figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) are provided in our table below. The JCG is a document that lists various injuries, along with severity levels and compensation brackets for each. Legal professionals use it to help when assigning value to medical negligence claims.

The examples in our table are from the latest update. However, it should be noted that the figures we provide are only for guidance and to help you learn how general damages could be awarded.

Edit
Injury Type Severity Notes Compensation Bracket
Brain damage Moderately Severe In this bracket the claimant is seriously disabled with substantial dependence and requires constant professional care. £219,070 to £282,010
Bladder and Bowels (a) The claimant suffers double incontinence along with other medical complications. Up to £184,200
Female Reproductive System Infertility Infertility has occurred, such as through failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy, in a younger claimant and it causes sexual dysfunction and severe depression along with pain and scarring. £114,900 to £170,280
Male Reproductive System Infertility The claimant is a young person and as a result of medical negligence is totally impotent, losses sexual function and is infertile. £114,900 to £148,320
Bladder (b) The claimant experiences a complete loss of bladder functioning. Up to £140,660
Leg Amputation (a) (iii) The claimant has one leg amputated above the knee. £104,830 to £137,470
Arm Amputation (b) (i) The claimant’s arm has been amputated at the shouder. Not less than £137,160
Lung (d) Breathing difficulties resulting in use of an inhaler that is fairly frequent. £31,310 to £54,830
Kidney (c) The claimant has loss one kidney, but the other is undamaged. £30,770 to £44,880
Spleen (a) A total loss of the spleen has occurred resulting in a continuing risk of internal infection and disorders. £20,800 to £26,290

If you have any questions about how compensation for medical negligence is awarded, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our advisors. They could provide more specific examples of medical negligence payouts. In addition, they can give you a free personalised claim valuation.

Special Damages Claimable In Medical Negligence Cases

When medical negligence or personal injury lawyer is successful in processing a claim, the claimant they have been representing will either be awarded a settlement in court or offered one prior to a trial. This settlement will take into consideration a number of different types of damages. General damages are paid to compensate the victim for the harm, pain and suffering they have encountered. Compensation will be driven by considerations such as the level of pain suffered, the type of treatment administered, and whether there may be long-term symptoms. As examples:

  • Loss of life quality due to long term or permanent disability.
  • Being subjected to invasive treatment.
  • Psychological conditions such as anxiety or depression, for example.
  • General pain and suffering suffered whilst the patient is ill.

Special damages are intended to compensate the victim for ad-hoc and financial losses. When the claimant intends to recoup expenses that have already been paid, they will need to provide some form of documented evidence to prove this spending related to their illness. Other examples include:

  • To compensate for lowered earning potential in the future due to some form of disability.
  • To cover the cost of paying for private medical treatment.
  • Lost salary or wages caused by taking time off work to recuperate.
  • To pay for a nurse to care for the victim at home.
  • To claim back ad-hoc and out of pocket expenses.

It’s possible to recover other types of losses too. Why not get in touch to find out more about how to report a negligent doctor?

No Win No Fee Claims Against Negligent Doctors Or GPs

Before we conclude our guide on reporting negligent doctors or GPs, it’s worth discussing the benefits of hiring a solicitor on the basis of a No Win No Fee. Solicitors who offer Conditional Fee Agreements, which is a type of No Win No Fee contract, usually won’t ask for a fee upfront or whilst the claim is ongoing.

Additionally, you won’t have to pay your solicitor for their services if your claim is not successful. Should your claim succeed, they’ll take a success fee from your award. However, the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 limits the percentage that your solicitor takes.

For further information on how to report a doctor that is negligent, or if you would like to work with a No Win No Fee solicitor, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our advisors can arrange a free consultation to assess your claim and answer any questions you may have.

There are plenty of ways you can get in touch with us, including:

  • Giving our free 24/7 advice line a call on 0800 073 8804
  • Sending an email to info@legalexpert.co.uk
  • Popping up to an online claim advisor using our free 24/7 online chat service

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    • Patrick Mallon

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.