Medical professionals and doctors are the only people we turn to when we encounter any kind of pain. Their job is to help us recover from our underlying issues and get back to 100%. The last thing you’d want is your health to deteriorate after trusting the doctor or nursing staff. Unfortunately, these issues are seen very frequently, even in the ever-improving and advanced healthcare system of the UK. There are some instances where it’s not easy to ascertain what caused the health to exacerbate. However, in other instances, the most obvious reason for such issues is negligence demonstrated by the health professionals. If you ever find yourself a victim of medical negligence, or anyone close to you faces any such problem, your only way to get out of that pit is to make a claim and win compensation for all the suffering you went through. 

There are a plethora of medical negligence cases and all of them are dealt with differently. Among these cases, misdiagnosis is one of the most common. This is when your doctor wrongly diagnosed the issue, causing the already bad condition to get worse.

 

Defining Misdiagnosis

The people of the UK make hundreds and thousands of claims against the healthcare system. This includes medical professionals, hospital management, and the main reason for these claims is misdiagnosis. Misdiagnosis is defined as an illness, injury, or a medical condition that was wrongly diagnosed. The doctor checked and deemed the condition as something it wasn’t, or made the right diagnosis when it was too late. Such errors committed by doctors will definitely cause the patient to get the wrong treatment, or start the right treatment when the situation has worsened to a great degree. Misdiagnosis is also a very common cause of death. 

 

Different Sorts Of Misdiagnosis Claims

There is a rich profusion of misdiagnosis claims. To make them easy to understand, they are categorised into three broad groups:

  • Incorrect Diagnosis: This is when the patient is told that they are suffering from a condition that they are actually not. Or in other cases, they are told that they have no condition at all, which isn’t true. Consequently, the patient has prescribed the wrong medicines and inaccurate treatment that can be very detrimental to their health. Physical problems aside, the patient can also develop psychological disorders, such as severe anxiety, if they are told they have a condition that they actually don’t have. For this reason, you also can also add psychological harm to your medical negligence claim.

 

  • Late Diagnosis: Late diagnosis is extremely common in medical negligence claims. If the doctor was not able to spot the real problem at the right time and later came to know about it when the disease had gotten worse, this will be labelled as a late diagnosis. This severely affects the chances of recovery and survival for the patient.

 

  • Failure To Diagnose: Although this happens relatively rarely, these cases are seen at even the most renowned hospitals. Medical professionals completely failing to diagnose the patient’s condition and not giving them any treatment at all, is the definition of failure to diagnose. A lot of people keep suffering without knowing what’s causing them pain. Failure to diagnose may also result in fatalities because the problem wasn’t diagnosed and treated. 

 

Causes Of Misdiagnosis

Some major causes of misdiagnosis that are seen are:

  • Wrong Interpretations of Medical tests: people go to hospitals to get X-rays, MRI scans, CT scans, biopsies, smears, and other tests. If the doctor fails to interpret these results in the right way, it will constitute a major misdiagnosis.

  • Lack of or Less Supervision: A lot of times the junior staff is given difficult tasks so that they learn, but this should only be done when the senior doctors are supervising them. If the junior staff worked without supervision, there’s a high probability of misdiagnosis occurring.
  • Carelessness From The General Practitioner: If negligence is observed by the practitioner, such as performing surgery under the influence of drugs and alcohol, you would have the grounds for making a claim. 

 

  • Mistakes While Performing Test: Any error during testing, which could have been avoided, can also enable you to submit a claim.

  • Inadequate Action: The doctor failed to rightly investigate the symptoms of the disease. 

 

Time Limits For Medical Misdiagnosis Claims

Just like all other compensation claims, medical negligence claims also have a set time limit. You have the option to submit a claim until three years from the date of diagnosis. It is important to note that if you take the right action earlier, the better your chances for winning the case. 

If you ever end up in any such unfortunate event, immediately get in touch with an expert medical negligence solicitor in Scotland from Wallace Legal. Our lawyers will thoroughly guide you about the whole process and do all it takes to ensure you win your monetary compensation.