Maidstone Walk-In Centre Medical Negligence – No Win No Fee Claims
If clinical negligence was to occur at a Maidstone walk-in centre would it mean the patient could be entitled to medical negligence compensation? Walk-in centres can assess and treat injuries and illnesses that need medical attention but that aren’t serious enough to necessitate a trip to a hospital.
Just like in any other medical setting, patients at a walk-in centre are entitled to a minimum standard of care. But what happens if the care you receive falls below this level, and you’re injured, or your condition worsens as a result? We’ll answer this question throughout our guide.
How To Claim For Medical Negligence
This guide provides plenty of examples to help you to understand the justifications for making a claim. But we do appreciate that you may still have questions after you have finished reading.
Our claims team works around the clock, 24 hours a day, to help people in your position. Just give us a call on 0800 073 8804, and an advisor will answer your questions and tell you how we can help you to make your claim.
Select A Section:
- A Guide On Claims Should Medical Negligence Occur At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre
- What Could Be Medical Negligence At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre?
- Maidstone And Tunbridge Wells Walk-In Centres
- When Can You Visit A Walk-In Medical Centre?
- Minor Injuries Treatment Walk-in Centre Negligence
- Minor Infection Treatment Walk-in Centre Negligence
- Sexual Health Treatment Walk-In Centre Negligence
- Prescription Negligence At A Walk-In Centre
- Medical Negligence Compensation Calculator
- No Win No Fee Solicitors For Medical Negligence At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre
- Speak To A Medical Claims Expert
- Need Further Help?
A Guide On Claims Should Medical Negligence Occur At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre
Maidstone walk-in centre medical negligence claims guide
In this guide, we will look at what steps you could take if you’ve been caused harm or your condition has worsened as the result of an unacceptable standard of care. To do this, we will examine the responsibilities healthcare professionals have to keep their patients from unnecessary harm as much as possible.
Furthermore, we will examine the kinds of services that a walk-in centre might provide. We’ll also examine how negligence in any of these kinds of services could potentially cause you harm.
You may be wondering how much compensation you could be owed for harm caused by medical negligence. In this guide, we will explain how compensation is valued and the different kinds of damages that could make up a settlement.
Finally, we will examine what a No Win No Fee agreement is and the kinds of benefits that they can offer claimants. To summarise, we will provide you with some external resources that we hope you will find useful.
If you finish this guide and still have questions about claiming or would like to start a claim today, we can help. Give our team a call on the number above.
What Could Be Medical Negligence At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre?
A walk-in centre is a healthcare facility where people suffering from minor injuries or illnesses can seek medical attention without the need for an appointment. Walk-in centres can be private or NHS-led, but the standard of care you can expect is the same regardless.
The General Medical Council is the regulatory body for medical practitioners in the UK. All healthcare professionals, including those providing treatment at a walk-in centre, need to adhere to their duty of care.
There are a number of different things that a walk-in centre could help with. However, we advise that you call the walk-in centre before visiting. This is because not all walk-in centres offer the same services. Some of the things that could be treated at a walk-in centre include:
When discussing negligence in a medical setting, it’s important to note that the healthcare provider can produce care at an acceptable level and your condition can still worsen or a new injury develops. This would not mean medical negligence has occurred.
For example, you may have cut your finger badly, and it becomes infected. When you seek medical attention, the infection has spread, and your finger needs to be amputated. Even though you are caused harm by the surgeon in the form of them amputating your finger, acting in this way is in accordance with their duty of care.
How does the court determine medical negligence?
Determining whether a medical professional has acted negligently or not can be complex. For this reason, the courts will usually administer something called the Bolam Test.
This is where a panel of the healthcare professional’s peers are asked if the treatment that was administered fell within an acceptable standard of care. If they confirm that it did not, the healthcare provider would be considered negligent.
If you would like to know more about what constitutes medical negligence, please call and speak to one of our advisors.
Maidstone And Tunbridge Wells Walk-In Centres
An easy way to find your local walk-in centre is to use the website provided by the NHS. We have included the address of two Maidstone walk-in centres below, too.
The Vine Medical Centre
13 Tonbridge Road
Maidstone
ME16 8RL
Maidstone Hospital
Hermitage Lane
Maidstone
When Can You Visit A Walk-In Medical Centre?
As we have already mentioned, walk-in centres are designed to treat minor illnesses and injuries. If you have a more severe injury, you should seek medical attention at a hospital instead. The NHS provides guidance on when to go to A&E.
Staff at a walk-in centre may be able to carry out any of the services listed below:
- Prescribe antibiotics for a minor chest infection
- Clean and dress a burn injury
- Provide advice about sexual health and prescribe some emergency contraceptives
However, not all walk-in centres have the facilities that are listed above. For example, only doctors and nurse prescribers can provide prescriptions. If the walk-in centre does not have one of these on-site, then they will not be able to prescribe you medication. Because of this, you should always call ahead before visiting a walk-in centre to confirm what services they offer.
Minor Injuries Treatment Walk-in Centre Negligence
You can visit a walk-in centre for treatments of minor injuries and wounds. These include things like cuts, sprains and burns. However, if medical negligence occurred in a Maidstone walk-in centre, making your injury worse than it otherwise would have been how would you go about making a medical negligence claim?
Below, we have included some potential errors and mistakes that could possibly happen in a walk-in centre that could cause you harm, if the duty of care was absent;
- You seek medical attention for a burn that is severe enough to be treated at the hospital. Despite this, the nurse cleans and dresses it and sends you home. Because you don’t get the right treatment, your injury gets worse, and you’re left with a disfiguring scar.
- A nurse examines your injuries using tools that have not been sterilised. As a result, you contract an infection.
- You fracture your finger, and it is put in a splint. However, the nurse treating you splints the wrong finger, and your fractured finger heals incorrectly as a result.
If you’ve experienced medical treatment of an unacceptable standard at a walk-in centre and your condition has worsened, or you’ve become ill or injured as a result, speak to a member of our team today for more information.
Minor Infection Treatment Walk-in Centre Negligence
You can visit a walk-in centre to have a minor infection or illness treated. As we have already mentioned, only certain walk-in centres will be able to prescribe you medication. However, staff at a walk-in centre may be able to offer you advice on where to get the right treatment.
Below we have included some potential examples of medical negligence:
- Because of a negligent diagnosis, you are treated for the wrong medical condition. For example, you are diagnosed with a viral but you actually have pneumonia. And no medication is given so your condition worsens.
- Test results, such as a blood test, are misinterpreted. Because of this, you receive the wrong treatment for your condition.
- You go to the walk-in centre with a rash, but the staff member doesn’t listen to all of your symptoms. As a result, the sepsis is not picked up and you end up seriously ill.
To hold a valid claim for medical negligence the onus is on you to provide evidence that the healthcare professional you hold responsible for making your illness worse or creating a new injury breached their duty of care towards you.
Sexual Health Treatment Walk-In Centre Negligence
It is possible to visit a walk-in centre to have matters of sexual health addressed. You should always check before visiting a walk-in centre for sexual health services, as not all of them will offer them.
What kind of mistakes could potentially happen in sexual health services at a Maidstone walk-in centre? Below we have included a list of potential scenarios of medical errors that could happen if the correct standard of care is not applied;
- An STI test is carried out incorrectly, and, as a result, you’re told you do not have an STI when you do. The lack of treatment means that your symptoms progress, and your fertility is affected.
- You’re pregnant, and you present at the walk-in centre with symptoms like abdominal pain and heavy bleeding. You’re told to go home and rest, but this causes you to miscarry because you should have been sent to the hospital for treatment.
- While being examined as part of an STI check, the nurse slips with an instrument and cuts your genitals. This cut then becomes infected.
It can be difficult for you to tell whether the care you received was negligent or of an acceptable standard. For this reason, our team are available 24/7 to answer your questions about medical negligence claims. Speak to us today for more information.
Prescription Negligence At A Walk-In Centre
Only a doctor or nurse prescriber working at a walk-in centre can provide you with a prescription. For this reason, there are many walk-in centres where this service is not offered.
A prescription error can result in serious harm and can result from mistakes like the examples below:
- You are prescribed a medication that you have a known allergy to. This information was available in your medical notes but overlooked. Because of this, you suffer an allergic reaction.
- You’re told to take the wrong dosage of the medication you’re prescribed, and you get very ill as a result.
- A spelling mistake or a printing error on a prescription leads to you taking the wrong medication. This makes you ill and also means that the initial infection you were being treated for gets worse.
Correctly prescribing medications is very important in healthcare. If you’re given the wrong dosage of a medication or the wrong medicine entirely, then your original condition may not be treated. Furthermore, you could develop another health condition because of the medication you’re taking. If you’d like to know more about claiming for harm caused by a medication error, speak to our team today.
Medical Negligence Compensation Calculator
If your claim for walk-in centre medical negligence is a success, the amount of compensation you receive could be made up of two different kinds of damages or “heads” of a claim. These are known as general damages and special damages.
General damages are based on the impact that your injuries have had on your quality of life. The value of the general damages head of your claim will be based on how badly the injury has affected your quality of life and how long it will take you to recover.
The table below demonstrates this. It is based on guideline compensation brackets that are provided by the Judicial College.
| Injury | Notes | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Severe fractures to fingers | These injuries might lead to the finger being partially amputation and lead to impaired grip. | Up to £34,480 |
| Moderate hand injury | Injuries such as crush injuries, soft tissue injuries and deep lacerations will fall into this bracket. | £5,260 to £12,460 |
| Illness resulting from non-traumatic injury (i) | Severe toxicosis which causes serious pain, vomiting and a fever. The injured person might need to be admitted to hospital and some ongoing effects will persist. | £36,060 to £49,270 |
| Illness resulting from non-traumatic injury (ii) | Despite being serious, illness within this bracket will be short-lived and diminish over the course of two to four weeks. Remaining discomfort and disturbance of bowel function and impact on sex life and enjoyment of food. | £8,950 to £18,020 |
| Illness resulting from non-traumatic injury (iii) | Significant discomfort, cramps, fatigue and change in bowel function will be experienced for a few weeks. A complete recovery will be made within 1-2 years. | £3,710 to £8,950 |
| Illness resulting from non-traumatic injury (iv) | Some days or weeks of pain that is disabling, stomach cramps and changes in bowel movement that last for weeks or days. | £860 to £3,710 |
Special damages, on the other hand, compensate you for any financial harm or losses caused by your injuries. For example, if you had to take time off work to recover, you could claim back the loss of earnings that this caused you. Alternatively, if you’ve had to pay for treatment, then you could claim back this cost.
It’s important to consider that when you are claiming for harm caused by medical negligence, your general and special damages will only reflect the harm caused to you by the negligence. For instance, if you seek medical attention for a broken finger and this could be misdiagnosed and worsen as a result.
However, even if you had received the proper standard of care and your condition was diagnosed and treated, you would have experienced some pain and suffering. You may also have had to take time off work. This means that the compensation you are awarded will only reflect the additional harm caused to you by the medical negligence and not your condition as a whole.
Our claims team can organise an evaluation of your claim for you. Call today to gets started.
No Win No Fee Solicitors For Medical Negligence At A Maidstone Walk-In Centre
A No Win No Fee agreement is sometimes also called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This kind of agreement sets out the conditions that your solicitor needs to meet before they ask you to pay them.
This kind of agreement means that the solicitor won’t ask you to pay any fees for them to start working on your claim. And no matter how long the claim takes to process, you won’t be charged a fee. If the claim is lost, your solicitor won’t ask for their fees.
If the claim is a success, though, your solicitor will deduct a small success fee from your compensation. The amount of this success fee is legally capped. This legal limit on success fees means that you’re always guaranteed the majority of the compensation awarded to you.
For more information about this type of agreement, please call and speak to one of our claim advisors, who will answer all of your questions for you. At the same time, they will also explain how we could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor that can process your claim for you. Our lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Speak To A Medical Claims Expert
We hope that you have found this guide useful. But if you have any more questions about making a claim for harm caused by medical negligence, you can contact our claims team on 0800 073 8804. You can also use our online contact form or the live chat feature to the bottom right of this screen.
An advisor will be ready to talk over your claim with you. They can inform you of your legal options. In addition to this, they could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor to process your claim.
Need Further Help?
Below, we have included some internal and external guides that you may find useful.
Claiming for an error in surgery
Delayed treatment compensation claims
How do I raise a concern about a doctor?
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) advice about making a claim
GMC- Ethical guidance for doctors
Other Guides Available To Read
- Knee Surgery Gone Wrong Claims Guide
- Rotavirus Compensation Claims Explained
- Liverpool Walk-In Centre Medical Negligence Claims
- Spire Healthcare Negligence Claims Guide
Thank you for reading our guide on what to do should medical negligence occur at a Maidstone walk-in centre.
Written by Wheeler
Edited by Stocks
