By Stephen Chambers. Last Updated 4th October 2024. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to sue a hospital. Have you experienced suffering as a result of a hospital’s failures? Suing a hospital for negligence may be possible if you can establish with evidence that it breached the duty of care that it owed you and this breach directly caused you harm. Here at How To Sue, we can utilise our years of experience handling medical and clinical negligence claims to help guide you towards successfully winning the compensation that you are entitled to.
Claims against large-scale organisations like the NHS can be a particular challenge to make. However, by seeking help from a solicitor, did you know that your claim’s chances of success could increase, in addition to the value of your payout?
In any case, it’s always best to seek help from a professional. So, if it’s specialist advice that you’re looking for, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team today. For no cost, we provide one-to-one consultations to get a better understanding of your case and offer our expert advice on how best to proceed.
If it’s legal assistance that you’re looking for, then our panel of medical negligence lawyers are on hand waiting to handle your case. If we believe you to have a valid case for compensation, then we can connect you with a solicitor to begin working with you right away. What’s more, you can always expect to receive a No Win No Fee service from our panel. This way, we won’t take any money from you if we don’t win your case, so you don’t have to worry about any financial risk when making your claim.
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Select a Section
- How To Sue A Hospital
- Suing A Hospital – What Time Limits Are Involved?
- How Can A Hospital Breach Their Duty Of Care?
- What Should I Do If I Experience Medical Negligence?
- What Is The Average Payout For A Hospital Claim?
- No Win No Fee Hospital Negligence Claims
- Additional Guides On How To Sue A Hospital
How To Sue A Hospital
A hospital automatically owes you a duty of care when it provides any sort of medical treatment to you. Under this duty of care, the hospital has a responsibility to provide the correct standard of care and prevent causing you avoidable harm.
If you are asking “can I sue a hospital?” after suffering an injury or illness because a hospital provided care that was below the correct standard, then it may be possible if the following can be established:
- The hospital owed you a duty of care
- This duty of care was breached by the hospital
- You were caused to suffer as a result of this breach by the hospital
Contact our advisors for free today if you have any questions regarding how to sue a hospital or the eligibility requirements for starting a claim.
Suing A Hospital – What Time Limits Are Involved?
When suing a hospital for pain and suffering, it’s important to be aware of the time limits that need to be adhered to. Generally, when suing the hospital, you have 3 years from the date you were injured to start a claim. This time limit can be found in the Limitation Act 1980. However, there are certain scenarios where it can still be possible to sue a hospital following the expiration of this time limit.
For instance, some injuries are not always detectable immediately after you have sustained them. Because of this, the 3-year time limit can sometimes begin from the date you become aware of your injuries and the fact they were caused by negligence. This alternative start date, known as the date of knowledge, must be backed up by evidence such as medical records.
Additionally, claims involving children do not have a time limit imposed on them until the date the injured child turns 18 years old. Before then, the claim can only be made on behalf of the child by an appointed litigation friend.
If the claimant has a reduced mental capacity, their time limit is also suspended. Only if they reach a point where they are deemed capable of claiming for themselves will the 3-year time limit begin. As with child claims, before this date, a litigation friend can be appointed to claim on their behalf.
How Can A Hospital Breach Their Duty Of Care?
In order to help ensure safe and proper practice, hospitals owe their patients a duty of care as mentioned above. Sometimes, a breach of this duty is easy to spot. For example, if a practitioner acts in a way that no practitioner should, diverging from usual standards of practice. For more examples of how a hospital could breach their duty of care, please refer to the next section.
Many cases of medical negligence can be less straightforward to establish liability, even if the practitioner accepts your account of their actions. As the courts widely accept that things can go wrong without negligence being to blame, the dispute often lies in whether your practitioner’s actions were negligent. Typically, negligence sees a practitioner breach their duty of care to their patient through their actions.
Pregnancy And Birth Injuries
If you’ve received improper care that resulted in harm to either you or your baby, you could have grounds to sue the hospital for their negligence.
The following are some examples of hospital failures that could take place in a maternity ward:
- A birth injury was suffered by your baby as a result of receiving improper NICU care
- Fetal distress was suffered by your baby as a result of a mismanaged procedure in an emergency
- A traumatic birth injury was suffered by your baby as a result of excessive pressure to their head (for example, through the use of forceps)
- Birth asphyxia was suffered by your baby as a result of oxygen deprivation caused by a failure to deliver them quickly enough
Prescription Errors
According to a recent NHS report, 1 in 20 prescriptions given to patients were wrong. The mistakes that led to these dangerous instances included:
- Incorrect doses taken due to insufficient information accompanying the prescription
- Lack of monitoring of the patient’s symptoms post-prescription
- Insufficient checks given to patients with multiple prescriptions (16% more risk of error associated with each additional medication prescribed)
Misdiagnosis
If you’ve been given a misdiagnosis or a missed diagnosis completely, then you could be entitled to sue the hospital responsible providing that you can prove that their failures led you to suffer.
Whether you feel as though the diagnosis you received may be incorrect or think you should have received a diagnosis but didn’t, you should always listen to your instincts. By addressing the issue with a healthcare provider, you could explore the alternatives together, in attempts to find an answer to your concerns.
What Should I Do If I Experience Medical Negligence?
As claims against large-scale organisations like the NHS can be a particular challenge to make, being as well prepared as you can be is crucial. In this section, we’ll talk you through some steps that you could take to increase your claim’s chances of success.
If you wish to sue a hospital operated by the NHS, you could complain through their official complaints procedure. This could allow you to learn more about the circumstances of your situation through the findings of their investigation. What’s more, their findings could influence your decision on whether to pursue legal action or not.
However, by seeking help from a solicitor, did you know that your claim’s chances of success could increase, in addition to the value of your payout?
If it’s legal assistance you’re looking for, our panel of medical negligence lawyers is on hand to handle your case. If we believe you to have a valid case for compensation, then we can connect you with a solicitor to begin working with you right away. What’s more, you can always expect to receive a No Win No Fee service from our panel. This way, we won’t take any money from you if we don’t win your case, so you don’t have to worry about any financial risk when making your claim.
So, whether you’re looking for legal guidance or a solicitor, please contact us today for your free consultation.
What Is The Average Payout For A Hospital Claim?
Alongside questions you may have, such as “Can I sue a hospital?”, you may also be wondering how much compensation may be awarded to you if you make a successful claim. Medical negligence compensation after successfully suing a hospital may include general damages and special damages. General damages compensate a claimant for the pain and suffering their injuries or illness has caused.
In the table below, you can see some of the compensation guidelines included in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document may be used by those valuing your hospital negligence claim for general damages. It lists numerous kinds of injuries and illnesses alongside guideline compensation brackets.
You can view the table below as a guide only. Please take note that the first entry is not based on the JCG.
| Injury | Compensation Guideline |
|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Forms Of Harm And Special Damages | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Brain damage (moderately severe) | £267,340 to £344,150 |
| Kidney Injuries (serious and permanent damage or loss to both) | £206,730 to £256,780 |
| Kidney Injuries (significant) | Up to £78,080 |
| Bowel Injuries (double incontinence) | Up to £224,790 |
| Bowel Injuries (loss of function) | Up to £183,190 |
| Back (severe) (i) | £111,150 to £196,450 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (severe) | £73,050 to £122,850 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (moderate) | £9,980 to £28,250 |
Those eligible to claim general damages may also be able to claim special damages as part of their hospital negligence compensation. Special damages cover financial expenses or losses you’ve experienced due to the illness and/or injuries you suffered in a hospital. Examples of what may be covered under special damages include:
- Travel expenses you’ve paid to attend medical appointments.
- Loss of earnings if you’ve needed to take unpaid time off work during your recovery.
- The cost of certain medications or treatments you’ve required during your recovery.
Evidence is needed to claim special damages as part of a hospital negligence case. This could certain documents such as bank statements, invoices or wage slips.
Get in touch with our advisors for free today to learn more about the potential value of your claim or to ask other related questions such as how to sue a hospital.
No Win No Fee Hospital Negligence Claims
Now that you know more about hospital negligence claims, let’s explore how medical negligence solicitors could help you through the claims process.
While you aren’t obligated to work with a legal professional, their expertise can come with certain benefits; for example, medical negligence solicitors can help you negotiate a settlement. They can also help you collect evidence to support your claim.
Our panel of solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This means that you don’t need to pay them upfront to start working on your claim, nor do you have to pay for their services if your claim fails.
If your hospital negligence claim succeeds, they will take a success fee. This fee is deducted from your compensation. However, the percentage that they can take is capped by law, and will be agreed upon with you before you get started.
Contact Our Team
Our team of advisors are here to help if you’d like to learn more about claiming for hospital negligence. Get in touch today to claim your free consultation, and a member of our team may connect you with a solicitor from our panel. To get started:
- Call us on 0800 408 7827
- Use the live chat feature
- Contact us online
Additional Guides On How To Sue A Hospital
- How to file an NHS complaint
- What rights an NHS patient has
- How to decide whether you have a valid NHS complaint
- And we also have a guide on how to sue your employer here
Check out more of our medical negligence guides below:
Also, learn more about how to sue for data breach compensation.
We hope this guide on how to sue a hospital has been useful for you. If you would like to speak to an advisor about hospital negligence claims, then you can get in touch with How To Sue using the contact details featured in this guide.