Cardiff University Hospital Negligence Claims Guide – How To Claim Compensation Against Cardiff University Hospital NHS Trust? – Calculate Amounts Payouts For Medical Negligence

When you suffer an injury which is caused by the negligence of a medical professional, it’s only right that you should consider suing the professional who caused your injuries. This guide is going to look at Cardiff University hospital negligence compensation payouts by looking at a couple of relevant case studies. We’ll explain what you could claim for, the types of NHS medical negligence claim you could make and how we could help you begin your claim.

If you’re ready to begin a claim for a hospital negligence payout today, then you should call our team. We’re available on 0800 073 8804. Our advisors will assess your case for free and let you know if you could make a no win no fee claim or not.

However, if you’d like to find out more about how to claim NHS hospital compensation before calling us, please carry on reading.

Choose A Section

• A Guide To Cardiff University Hospital Compensation Claims
• Clinical Negligence Explained
• How Hospital Negligence Could Happen
• £19.8m Brain Injuries Compensation Paid By Cardiff University Hospital
• £90m Welsh NHS Record Compensation Payouts In 2017/18
• Statistics For Cardiff Hospital Trust Compensation Payouts
• How Do I Male A Hospital Negligence Claim?
• No Win No Fee Cardiff University Hospital Negligence Claims
• Cardiff Area Doctors We Work With
• Talk To Legal Expert
• Information On Medical Services And Additional Guides

A Guide To Cardiff University Hospital Compensation Claims

Cardiff University Hospital compensation claims information

Medical professionals have a duty of care towards their patients. This means they should try and keep them safe and well throughout their treatment wherever possible. If they fail to do so, because of a negligent act, then it could be possible for compensation to be sought if the patient is injured or suffers because of the negligence.

We’re going to look at a couple of case studies regarding Cardiff University hospital negligence compensation payouts to demonstrate how mistakes can lead to successful compensation payments. As these cases studies are taken from press reports, it’s fair to say that the Cardiff hospital negligence compensation amounts are at the extreme end of claims that happen.

Your claim doesn’t need to be a multi-million pound case. You could claim for any type of injury caused by a medical professional. These could be claims for suffering caused by Cardiff hospital A&E, surgeons or any other member of hospital staff.

We’ll explain what clinical negligence is and when you could make a claim as well as outlining the types of thing you could claim for. One thing to bear in mind is the medical negligence claims time limit. This is a 3-year period from the date you were injured. Alternatively, the 3-year period could begin from when you found out about your injuries our illness.

To ensure you have enough time to claim, you should contact Legal Expert as soon as possible. Although 3 years seems like a long period, your solicitor will require enough time to gather evidence including complex medical evidence. Speak with an advisor today to begin your claim. There’s no pressure from us and you’re under no obligation to proceed.

Clinical Negligence Explained

Medical or clinical negligence can be defined as:

• Suffering caused to a patient, by a medical professional, caused by a negligent act.

This could be because they’ve failed to follow procedures, diagnosed incorrectly, given the wrong medicine, used incorrect equipment or made any other number of mistakes.

The list of medical professionals who could be claimed against is probably too long to list here. A sample of those working in hospitals includes Cardiff hospital doctors, nurses, surgeons, midwives, pharmacists, paediatricians, anaesthetists, carers and physiotherapists.

What You Can Claim For

When you make a claim for medical negligence, your solicitor can include a number of different elements in a claim. These include:

• General Damages.
  This part of the claim covers the pain, suffering and also the loss of amenity caused to you by your injuries.
• Travelling Costs.
  If, while you’re receiving remedial treatment for your suffering, you incur travelling expenses, you could claim the cost of parking, fuel or public transport back.
• Medication Expenses.
  Although you’ll receive free treatment from the NHS, you may have to pay for medication. This could be prescription costs or over the counter medication. In either case, you could also include this expenditure in your claim.
• Care Costs.
  If you’re left requiring professional care to help you recover from your injuries, then you might be able to include the care costs back.
• Lost Earnings.
  When you need time off work to recover or to visit the doctor, if you lose income because you don’t receive full sick pay, you could look to claim this loss back. In more serious cases, where your ability to work is affected for the long-term, you could claim future loss of earnings too. 

The financial losses you claim are known as special damages. To help your solicitor prove how they were incurred because of your injuries, you should keep a diary whenever you spend money. Keep hold of any receipts too as these can be used to support your claim.

How Hospital Negligence Could Happen

Cardiff University hospital negligence compensation payouts can be made for a number of different negligent acts. The following list provides some more common examples of hospital negligence which could lead to a claim:

• Misdiagnoses or Late Diagnosis.
  When you receive the wrong diagnosis, or the correct one only comes after numerous visits to a specialist, you could suffer because of the delay in treatment. Your illness could become worse which means you suffer worse symptoms. It could also mean the treatment, when you finally receive it, is more aggressive or painful. In the most extreme cases, a delay in treatment might mean your condition becomes untreatable.
• Injuries During Childbirth.
  If a mother or baby is injured during pregnancy, in labour or following the birth, then compensation might be sought for their suffering. This could be the case if a nurse, midwife or doctor didn’t follow the correct procedure, used the wrong equipment or failed to spot a problem occurring.
• Medication Errors.
  You could also seek damages if you suffered because of an error with your medication. This could happen if the wrong drug was administered during treatment, a doctor prescribed the wrong medicine, or the pharmacist dispensed the wrong medication or dosage.
• Super Bugs.
  If hygiene standards in a hospital drop and you sustain a super bug such as MRSA, you could be susceptible to conditions like pneumonia. If that happens, you could seek damages for your suffering.
• Surgical Errors.
  Even when you’ve signed a consent form or waiver, if a surgeon makes a mistake during surgery which causes you an injury, you could be able to sue them or the hospital. Examples of surgical negligence include suffering caused by ineffective suturing or clips, medical equipment being left inside you or pain caused because of an anaesthetic error.

£19.8m Brain Injuries Compensation Paid By Cardiff University Hospital

The first case study we’re going to look at is a case which resulted in the largest compensation bill the NHS has ever had to settle (at the time of writing).

The tragedy happened when the girl (who’s now 18) was in hospital aged five-months-old in the year 2000. She was being treated for reflux, a fairly common condition which causes the baby to bring up milk or vomit following feeding.

Prior to the treatment, the girl had been a relatively healthy baby. She did have malformed oesophagus but was a normal baby girl. The problem which led to the girl suffering catastrophic brain damage was that hospital staff failed to ventilate her when she stopped breathing and turned blue.

The judge in the case found that staff were responsible because they didn’t ventilate her properly before and after she suffered respiratory arrest.

In total, the girl was awarded £19,774,265 in damages. This amount was paid because of the severity of the injuries and for the around the clock care she will need for the whole of her life.

Following the settlement, the mother explained how her little girl, “is mobile but doesn’t really know what is going on”.

The claim was against Cardiff and Vale University health board who are responsible for the University Hospital of Wales. The amount will be paid in instalments. A £2.1 million lump sum will be paid first followed by annual payments of £203,000 for the rest of her life.

Source: www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/01/nhs-pays-out-record-20m-compensation-to-brain-injury-teenager

£90m Welsh NHS Record Compensation Payouts In 2017/18

In another news report, it has been shown that during 2017-18 the 7 NHS boards in Wales have had to pay out over £90 million which is a rise of over 40% on the figure paid just four years previously. The Welsh government blamed new rules from the Ministry of Justice which meant that the costs had “significantly increased”.

In that four-year period, the board whose payments increased the most was Cardiff and Vale’s. Another board (Betsi Cadwaladr) saw the number of claims increase from 98 to 193.

A health spokesperson for opposition of the government explained how the pay outs reflected the amount of pressure the NHS staff in Wales are under. She also explained that there are still measures that could be taken to reduce risks throughout the NHS.

Opposition parties in Wales called for an urgent inquiry to investigate the increase payments. However, the Welsh government explained that the situation in England was the same. They said that because the government had changed the Personal Injury Discount Rate, legal claims for medical negligence across the whole of the United Kingdom had increased.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-45097810

Statistics For Cardiff Hospital Trust Compensation Payouts

In the table below, we’ve provided data that shows how much compensation was paid out for medical negligence by the NHS trust in Cardiff. As you can see, in the two years shown, the amount of compensation paid out increased by over £2.5 million.

The data comes from a lengthy NHS Wales report which you can read here to see how Cardiff compares to other trusts in Wales.

How Do I Male A Hospital Negligence Claim?

You might wonder what the process is to begin a NHS hospital compensation claim. Some people start by asking friends for advice, reading solicitor reviews or asking family members to recommend a medical negligence solicitor. While this might help, you could save a lot of time by calling Legal Expert.

We offer a free assessment of your case. At the same time, our advisors offer free legal advice about your claim. If they think you have a good chance of compensation, they’ll introduce you to a specialist claims solicitor.

The solicitor will work with you to gather evidence to support your claim. A key piece of evidence will be medical records from the GP or hospital who first treated you. Then they’ll arrange for a medical assessment.

These are carried out by independent doctors who assess you and ask a number of questions about your injuries. They do this so that they can compile a report which shows what injuries you sustained, how they caused you to suffer and whether they’ll affect you in the future. The medical assessment is a key piece of evidence in any medical negligence claim.

No Win No Fee Cardiff University Hospital Negligence Claims

A major worry for some people when claiming against Cardiff Hospital NHS Trust is the cost involved with hiring a personal injury solicitor. That’s why if you begin an NHS negligence compensation claim with us, any solicitor we introduce you to will work on a no win no fee basis.

The way no win no fee agreements (or conditional fee agreements) work have changed. In the past, if your claim was successful, the defendant would pay your legal fees. That’s not allowed now which means your solicitor is paid a success fee if you receive compensation.

Success fees are limited, by law, to 25% of your compensation. When compensation is paid, the success fee is deducted by the solicitor before the rest is sent to you. This makes things a little easier as you don’t need to find the money to pay them yourself.

We believe that using no win no fee solicitor allows more people to claim. That’s because it reduces the financial risks involved with claims which, in turn, reduces the stress levels too.

To see if you could be entitled to make a no win no fee clam, call today. There’s nothing to lose as your initial consultation is free and there’s no obligation to proceed.

Cardiff Area Doctors We Work With

As mentioned earlier in this guide, any claim for Cardiff University hospital negligence compensation payouts need evidence including a report from a medical assessment. We have a panel of doctors, based around the UK, to ensure you don’t have to travel too far for an assessment. In the Cardiff area, we could use:

Heena Singal
Station Road,
Cardiff, CF14 5QP.

Simon Wearne
Parkwood Chiropractic Centre,
Cathedral Road,
CF11 9PG.

Anna Ross
Malthouse Avenue,
Cardiff, CF23 8RU.

Our panel of doctors includes lots more in Cardiff. Therefore, if these aren’t local to you, then you could be seen by one who is closer to you.

Talk To Legal Expert

Now that you’ve read this guide about Cardiff University hospital negligence compensation payouts amounts, if you’d like to begin a claim, you can contact us in a number of ways. To get in touch:

• Call us free on 0800 073 8804 and speak directly with a specialist advisor.
• Arrange a call back by filling in our online claim form.
• Use our live chat feature at any time of day or night.
• Send an email to info@legalexpert.co.uk

When you get in touch, we’ll assess your claim for free. We’ll also provide free legal advice about your claim. If we think your case is strong enough, we could introduce you to a no win no fee solicitor.

Information On Medical Services And Additional Guides

We hope you’ve found this guide about Cardiff Vale hospital negligence compensation payouts helpful. To aid you further, we’ve provides links to some more guides and resources below which you might find useful. If you need any further information at all, please get in touch. Our panel of medical negligence lawyers have up to 30 years of experience handling all sorts of personal injury claims. They’ll work with you and they’ll try to make sure you receive the correct amount of compensation for your injuries.

Cardiff NHS News – The latest news and information from the Cardiff NHS trust.

Health in Wales – The home of the NHS in Wales with information of services offered, the latest news and strategies too.

University Hospital of Wales – Cardiff University hospital is the main site operated by Cardiff and Vale NHS University Health Board.

NHS Hospital Negligence Claims – A detailed look at when you can claim compensation for medical negligence against hospitals.

MRSA Claims – Information on when you could make an NHS compensation claim after contracting MRSA.

Cosmetic Surgery Claims – This guide explains when you’re able to make a hospital negligence claim following errors in cosmetic surgery.

Author Bret

Editor Jay