Delayed or late diagnosis claims

It is a fact of life that many of us will develop illnesses or conditions. As we access medical care, we have a reasonable belief and expectation that the treatment we receive will be of a high standard. There are times when standards slip and if that happens, the illness or condition may develop or advance more than it might have done had proper medical treatment received.

What do you mean by a delayed or late diagnosis?

A delayed or late diagnosis claim may exist where you presented to a medical practitioner and he or she failed to diagnose your illness or condition, with the illness or condition then being diagnosed at a later date.

It will be necessary to prove that the medical practitioner’s care for you and their failure to diagnose fell below the standards to be expected of them, and that no body of responsible equivalent medical practitioners would have made the same mistake. An example of this would be if you attended upon your consultant because of concerns that you might have cancer. Instead of organising a
mammogram, the consultant has sent you away. If you can evidence that no responsible equivalent consultant would have sent you away and the correct course of action would have been to send you for a mammogram, this will help to establish that your consultant breached their duty of care to you.

Does this mean I can bring a claim for medical negligence?
Providing a breach of the duty of care is the first requirement to having a successful medical negligence claim. It is also necessary to prove that the failure to diagnose you in a timely fashion has led to your illness or condition worsening in some way. An example of this is the current and real life example of female patients who received radiotherapy treatment from the NHS for Hodgkin lymphoma (see our article on this issue here​). In this example, the NHS knew that these women should undergo annual breast screenings as they were at very high-risk of developing breast cancer. However, not all the women were invited for annual screenings and as a consequence,  some women will have died whilst others will have developed cancer that might have been detected had annual screenings been undertaken.

Can I get compensation if my diagnosis was made late?
Yes.
If we can show that the medical practitioner breached their duty of care and this led to your illness or condition worsening, we can help you bring a claim for medical negligence.

How much compensation can I expect to receive?
Each individual’s case is unique to them, and it is impossible to provide a single answer. This will depend on what your illness or condition was, how this would have developed had the diagnosis been made at an earlier date, how it did develop, and how much pain and suffering this caused you.

I was unable to work once my cancer spread.

Can I claim for my loss of earnings? As well as damages to recognise your pain and suffering, you can claim for any financial losses suffered as a direct result of the negligence and late diagnosis. Examples of this could be lost earnings and wages, care costs, and private medical treatment.

You can rest assured that we have a great deal of experience in maximising claims for damages and ensuring that all possible heads of loss are included in your claim.

How much will I have to pay to bring a claim?
We act for our medical negligence clients under Conditional Fee Agreements, more commonly referred to as ‘no win no fee’ agreements.

Under this agreement, you do not need to pay us anything upfront or as your claim progresses.

If the claim fails, we write off the time we have spent working on the claim for you.

If the claim succeeds, your contribution to our costs will be capped at 25% of the damages you are awarded, meaning you receive a minimum of 75% of the damages awarded or agreed.

Is there a time limit for bringing my claim?
The starting point is that a claim for medical negligence should be brought within three years from the date of the negligence, or the date when you first became aware that you had suffered an illness or injury due to negligence.

There are exceptions to this rule and it is not always straightforward to define the date of negligence or what the date is when you first became aware of a potential claim.

Our recommendation is to seek advice from a solicitor at the earliest opportunity.

Why should I instruct Lennons Solicitors?
‘Small but agile’ appropriately describes Lennons’ medical negligence offering. Whilst we do not have the size of many of our larger competitors, we are more than capable of matching (or bettering) them for service offered.

Our size means we are able to offer a very close and personal service to those affected by issues such as those detailed here.

Some of our credentials include:

• The department is accredited by the Association of Personal Injury
  Lawyers (APIL).
• Andrew King is accredited by APIL as a Senior Litigator.
• Andrew King is ranked in the current edition of Chambers as a medical negligence specialist: “He is fantastic, he’s very good with clients and very tenacious.” See more >>
• The medical negligence department is ranked in the current edition of the Legal 500: “Andrew King is the standout solicitor. An excellent negotiator and utterly reliable. Commercially minded with an eye on the final outcome at all times.” See more >>

We offer a free initial meeting to discuss your situation and to advise on whether you might have a claim, to explain the process, and to set out how we might be able to help.

If you would like us to act on your behalf, please complete the enquiry form on this page and we will contact you. Alternatively, if you would prefer to speak with Andrew King and to discuss further, please call him on 01494 773377.