Should people sue the national health for misdiagnosis ?

finchy

I don't know much about litigation law, but can you sue for really small amounts in the UK? My French ex-girlfriend's family sued the hospital for negligence, but they asked for 1 franc (10p back in the day) in compensation. The point wasn't the money, the point was for the hospital to acknowledge that they had made a mistake which led to the death of her granddad.

VTech

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19639029#p19639029]johnfinch[/url] wrote:

I don't know much about litigation law, but can you sue for really small amounts in the UK? My French ex-girlfriend's family sued the hospital for negligence, but they asked for 1 franc (10p back in the day) in compensation. The point wasn't the money, the point was for the hospital to acknowledge that they had made a mistake which led to the death of her granddad.

Litigation often costs more than the claim. Even with undeniable evidence, litigation is costly, only winners are the lawyers who do not want the litigation to end as its a gravy train as long as you could ever imagine.

finchy

It all depends on the case. My stepbrother works for a law company in medical negligence (he's surprisingly principled). The NHS has its own investigative teams and in the first instance they look into a case, and if they can see that the NHS are at fault they settle with the patient without any legal proceedings or law firms involved. Patients/relatives then tend to go to get legal help if they have had their claim rejected by the NHS. According to my stepbrother, the NHS wins most of the cases because their in-house specialists are very honest and get it right the majority of the time.

So if you are thinking about some sort of redress, but don't want to cost the NHS a load of money (in which case good for you) and you are very confident of your case, you might want to put in a small token claim and see where that gets you.

laurentian

OK . . . this is perhaps slightly off topic but I am currently experiencing "misdiagnosis".

Last Thursday, I started experiencing an uncomfortable "griping" in my lower abdomen - didn't think too much and guessed that next time "things moved" down there, all would be well.

During the night, this discomfort had progressed to short bursts of acute cramping pain in the lower, front abdomen. Friday PM I call the GP for a telephone appointment (knowing there is now way I would get a face to face in what remained of the day). I told her my symptoms and she told me to got to the chemist and pick up some over the counter medicine for IBS (I didn't know it was for IBS until the chemist told me). The doctor also told me to call 111 if there was no improvement in the next 24 hours.

Now, I don't think that the problem is IBS and, in that respect, I would say it was "Misdiagnosed". HOWEVER, I believe the doctor on the phone prescribed according to the evidence presented in my description over the telephone and, based on what I told her, it may have been difficult to make any other conclusion.

So, I'm no better on Saturday afternoon (and by now thinking this could be my bladder) and I call 111. An over the phone treage/diagnosis takes place and the chap on the end of the phone tells me I need to see a doctor within 6 hours and that someone will call me shortly to arrange. The call comes and I am told to attend an out of hours surgery in a town about 9 miles away at 7pm. I arrive at the state of the art security guarded, clean and modern facility and am seen by a doctor at 2 minutes past 7. Fantastic service from the NHS up to this point, the 111 diagnosis, the speed of response, the booking in, the facility, the lack of waiting - all world class. Then I see the doctor.

The doctor, in a fantastically equipped and maintained room, prods and pokes me around a bit, tests a urine sample, asks me about my symptoms etc. and then concludes . . . I have a strained muscle, a strained muscle ffs!! and prescribes . . . Ibuprofen and go home call GP on Monday if no better. In September, I will be starting my 40th season of playing Rugby - I know what a F***ing strained muscle feels like! and this ain't it.

So this is "Misdiagnosis" of a completely different kind to that experienced over the phone. This doctor has seen me, tested me, prodded me, poked me and talked to me and makes, in my opinion, a very poor diagnosis. (It is also an example of how your tax is being completely pissed up the wall in the NHS. Everything that lead up to the point of me seeing the doctor, all of that investment, was as good as anything I could have expected. Short of them picking me up from home, it was truly impressive but they fell, terribly, at the last hurdle meaning that I now have to go through the initial diagnosis but a third time at the taxpayers expense).

I have an appointment this afternoon with my GP.

ai_1

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19642014#p19642014]laurentian[/url] wrote:

OK . . . this is perhaps slightly off topic but I am currently experiencing "misdiagnosis".

Last Thursday, I started experiencing an uncomfortable "griping" in my lower abdomen - didn't think too much and guessed that next time "things moved" down there, all would be well.

During the night, this discomfort had progressed to short bursts of acute cramping pain in the lower, front abdomen. Friday PM I call the GP for a telephone appointment (knowing there is now way I would get a face to face in what remained of the day). I told her my symptoms and she told me to got to the chemist and pick up some over the counter medicine for IBS (I didn't know it was for IBS until the chemist told me). The doctor also told me to call 111 if there was no improvement in the next 24 hours.

Now, I don't think that the problem is IBS and, in that respect, I would say it was "Misdiagnosed". HOWEVER, I believe the doctor on the phone prescribed according to the evidence presented in my description over the telephone and, based on what I told her, it may have been difficult to make any other conclusion.

So, I'm no better on Saturday afternoon (and by now thinking this could be my bladder) and I call 111. An over the phone treage/diagnosis takes place and the chap on the end of the phone tells me I need to see a doctor within 6 hours and that someone will call me shortly to arrange. The call comes and I am told to attend an out of hours surgery in a town about 9 miles away at 7pm. I arrive at the state of the art security guarded, clean and modern facility and am seen by a doctor at 2 minutes past 7. Fantastic service from the NHS up to this point, the 111 diagnosis, the speed of response, the booking in, the facility, the lack of waiting - all world class. Then I see the doctor.

The doctor, in a fantastically equipped and maintained room, prods and pokes me around a bit, tests a urine sample, asks me about my symptoms etc. and then concludes . . . I have a strained muscle, a strained muscle ffs!! and prescribes . . . Ibuprofen and go home call GP on Monday if no better. In September, I will be starting my 40th season of playing Rugby - I know what a F***ing strained muscle feels like! and this ain't it.

So this is "Misdiagnosis" of a completely different kind to that experienced over the phone. This doctor has seen me, tested me, prodded me, poked me and talked to me and makes, in my opinion, a very poor diagnosis. (It is also an example of how your tax is being completely pissed up the wall in the NHS. Everything that lead up to the point of me seeing the doctor, all of that investment, was as good as anything I could have expected. Short of them picking me up from home, it was truly impressive but they fell, terribly, at the last hurdle meaning that I now have to go through the initial diagnosis but a third time at the taxpayers expense).

I have an appointment this afternoon with my GP.

To be fair there's nothing here that makes me think this couldn't be a pulled muscle. You're calling this a misdiagnosis but you don't actually know the doctor is wrong. I don't see how your rugby experience qualifies you to recognise all pulled muscle injuries by feel. Depending on the muscle involved, the symptoms and sensation could be very different. Maybe it's a misdiagnosis, maybe it's not.

pblakeney

This thread could prove worthwhile, or extremely embarrassing.

laurentian

[/quote]
To be fair there's nothing here that makes me think this couldn't be a pulled muscle. You're calling this a misdiagnosis but you don't actually know the doctor is wrong. I don't see how your rugby experience qualifies you to recognise all pulled muscle injuries by feel. Depending on the muscle involved, the symptoms and sensation could be very different. Maybe it's a misdiagnosis, maybe it's not.[/quote]

You are right of course and I am in no way qualified to make a self diagnosis - the fact that the pain comes on when I am sitting or lying down, suddenly and without me moving suggests to me it is not a pulled muscle (in my experience of pulled muscles). The point I was trying to make is that the first "misdiagnosis" was based on a telephone conversation and, given the info that I gave the doctor, was understandable. The second not so much as I was with the doctor who carried out much prodding and poking, questioning and testing and came back with what, to me, was an unlikely conclusion. Having just returned from the GP, he has confirmed it is not a pulled muscle (and, in fact, questioned what the doc on Saturday was on about) . . . more tests for me . . .