By Stephen Anderson. Last Updated 28th August 2024. If you’ve suffered harm as a result of medical negligence while being treated by the NHS, you may want to learn more about your legal rights and what you could be entitled to. Below, you can find a comprehensive NHS compensation payouts guide.
You can also find advice on how our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors can help you claim compensation.
Read on to find out more about medical negligence claims. Alternatively, get in touch with our advisors today to get more information or potentially start a claim.
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Select A Section
- The Eligibility Criteria For Claiming Compensation Payouts From The NHS
- NHS Compensation Payouts Guide – How Long Do You Have To Claim?
- Medical Negligence Compensation Payouts – What Evidence Do I Need?
- NHS Compensation Payouts Guide
- Claim With No Win No Fee Lawyers
- More About NHS Negligence Payouts
The Eligibility Criteria For Claiming Compensation Payouts From The NHS
All medical professionals owe a duty of care to each patient they provide care to. Under this duty, a medical professional should deliver the correct standard of care and avoid causing any unnecessary harm. This applies whether someone providing medical care is working for either an NHS or private healthcare centre.
You may be eligible to claim for a medical negligence payout if the following applies:
- A medical professional owed you a duty of care.
- This duty was breached.
- Due to this breach, you suffered unnecessary harm.
For more advice about your eligibility to claim for medical negligence and how much your potential case could be worth, please continue reading our NHS compensation payouts guide or contact our advisors for free today.
NHS Compensation Payouts Guide – How Long Do You Have To Claim?
To make a medical negligence claim, there is generally a time limit of 3 years. This means that patients who have been harmed by negligence have 3 years to start claims for NHS negligence payouts.
This could start either from the date of the accident or the date of knowledge. This describes the date you became aware (or should have known) that your symptoms resulted from negligence.
However, there are a few exceptions:
- For those with diminished mental capacity, a litigation friend can claim on their behalf, and the time limit is suspended unless the claimant regains their mental capacity. After this point, the usual time limit of 3 years applies. A litigation friend is someone who pursues a claim on behalf of someone who isn’t able to do so themselves.
- For minors, a litigation friend can make a claim for them up until their 18th birthday. Once the claimant turns 18, they then have until they are 21 to start a claim for themselves.
If you would like to know more about how time limitations can apply to your circumstances, get in touch with an advisor from our team today. They could offer you specific advice based on your case.
Medical Negligence Compensation Payouts – What Evidence Do I Need?
You are owed a duty of care by all medical professionals who work for the NHS. Payouts for negligence are only awarded if you can prove they provided you with substandard care. There are a few ways you can prove that your injuries were caused by medical negligence. In this section, we have compiled a short list of examples. However, there are other forms of evidence you can acquire too.
Examples include:
- Medical records – It is your right to make a request for your medical records at any time. Contained within will be important details pertaining to your treatment, injuries, and any medication you’ve been prescribed.
- Visual evidence – If you have physical injuries that are visible, then taking photographs can be a good way of supporting your claim.
Have you suffered avoidable harm after being treated on the NHS? Medical negligence claims can be pursued if you can show how a medical professional’s duty of care was breached. You can reach us at any time to see if your claim is legitimate.
If it is, we may be able to connect you with a lawyer from our panel to begin the process of making a claim.
NHS Compensation Payouts Guide
You may be seeking examples of medical negligence payouts if you have valid grounds to make this type of claim. Medical negligence payouts for successful claims vary on a case-by-case basis. Therefore it may be more beneficial for you to know how compensation is calculated.
Following a successful claim, you will be awarded compensation for the unnecessary harm you have suffered under general damages. Those valuing this head of your claim may refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help them.
This document lists compensation guidelines for various forms of harm. We have included some of the amounts listed in the most recent edition of the JCG in the table below, except for the first entry. Please only use it as a guide.
| Injury | Severity | Guideline Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries/illnesses and special damages | Serious | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Paralysis | Tetraplegia | £396,140 to £493,000 |
| Paralysis | Paraplegia | £267,340 to £346,890 |
| Brain | Moderately severe | £267,340 to £344,150 |
| Brain | Moderate (i) | £183,190 to £267,340 |
| Reproductive System: Female | (B) Sexual dysfunction | £52,490 to £124,620 |
| Reproductive System: Male | (C) Impotence or significant sexual dysfunction | £52,490 to £108,310 |
| Eye | Loss of one eye | £66,920 to £80,210 |
| Asthma | (B) Chronic asthma | £32,090 to £52,490 |
| Pelvis & Hip | Moderate (i) | £32,450 to £47.810 |
For information regarding potential NHS compensation payouts for valid medical negligence claims, you can contact our advisors for free today.
NHS Compensation Payouts And Special Damages
You might also be entitled to special damages, which is the portion of your compensation that will cover any financial losses you may have experienced as a result of your injuries. Not everyone is eligible to claim under this, as you must be able to provide proof that the losses you experienced were directly caused by the harm done to you through medical negligence.
As such, many online examples of medical negligence payouts will not include what you could receive under special damages. Expenses you could claim under this heading can include:
- Loss of earnings
- Travel costs
- Specialist equipment
- Childcare expenses
- Prosthetics
- Domestic help, like housekeeping and gardening
To prove that you have experienced financial loss as a result of your injuries, it can be a good idea to save any receipts, bills or invoices related to these costs and losses.
Contact our advisors today to find out what you could claim under special damages, and to get a free estimate of what your claim could be worth. Alternatively, continue reading our NHS compensation payouts guide to learn more about claiming for medical negligence, and how our panel of solicitors could help you.
Claim With No Win No Fee Lawyers
No Win No Fee lawyers could help claimants seeking medical negligence payouts. Their services could be provided under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee arrangement.
This means that you will not be asked for an upfront payment. You won’t be asked to cover any ongoing costs either. If your claim is a success, a small success fee will be taken by your lawyer from your compensation. If your No Win No Fee lawyer fails to get you compensation, you usually won’t be asked to pay for their services.
Call our advisors for a free assessment of your medical negligence claim against the NHS. If compensation looks likely to be awarded, they could connect you to our panel of specialist medical negligence lawyers who could all offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis.
To get in touch:
- Contact us
- Call 0800 408 7825.
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More About NHS Negligence Payouts
If you’ve been seeking an NHS compensation payouts guide or want more insight into claiming for medical negligence, please see below for more relevant links.
Claiming For Harm Caused By Being Starved Of Oxygen At Birth – Read our guide for information on claiming for harm caused by this kind of birth injury.
Drug Error Claims – In this guide, we look at the process of claiming for a drug error caused by negligence.
How Long Does A Medical Negligence Claim Take? – For further information on how long the medical negligence claims process could take, read this article.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency – The website for the MHRA, a government body responsible for ensuring that medicine and medicinal devices are safe.
The Care Quality Commission – The website for the CQC, an independent regulatory body that looks at the quality and safety of care for various organisations.
The Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations, 2009 – The legislation covering your rights to make a complaint.
Other Guides Available
Thank you for reading our NHS compensation payouts guide.