Historically many people have been reluctant to claim compensation for the mistakes or omissions of their GP. It can be through a sense of loyalty, concern over further treatment, or an old-fashioned paternalistic patient relationship that promotes the maxim that doctor knows best.

But the negligent failure of a GP can result in life-changing injury and illness. You may need care and financial assistance to help you recover, rehabilitate or cope with the consequences. Sometimes a compensation claim is the only way to do this.

A GP is in many cases the gateway to your treatment for an injury or illness. It is essential that your GP recognises your symptoms, diagnoses your condition, and either offers treatment or refers you to a specialist promptly.

A GP should be able to assess and identify conditions that may require urgent specialist treatment, such as a stroke, heart attack, meningitis, and cancer. This is not always easy.

They must provide you with a reasonable and competent standard of advice and treatment. If your GP does not provide you with this standard of care and fails to diagnose, treat, or refer you to a specialist, it may cause you avoidable injury, pain, and suffering.

If you believe a GP has failed to uphold the required standard of care through omission or mistake, you should speak to one of our specialist clinical negligence solicitor about whether you can claim compensation to support your needs. A specialist solicitor will also help you through the complaints process and get you answers.

Birchall Blackburn Law’s clinical negligence solicitors have decades worth of experience dealing with the aftermath of GP errors. General Practice is a wide and complicated area of medicine, but our specialist team has seen a number of common mistakes. These include:

• Failure to diagnose a fracture
• Failure to refer to hospital
• Delay or failure to refer to a specialist
• Failure to refer for an X-ray, MRI or other scan
• Failure to review repeat prescriptions
• Wrong prescription or wrong dosage
• Failure to spot infection (e.g. a wound infection)
• Failure to conduct a thorough examination
• Failure to diagnose a condition
• Failure to take a proper medical history
• Failure to consider medical history
• Failure to interpret blood test correctly
• Failure to investigate blood tests
• Failure to act upon abnormal blood tests
• Failure to inform a patient of a consultant’s instructions on how to manager a medical condition

If you suspect that that your medical treatment has been negligent, it is important to seek legal advice as soon as possible.

A specialist Medical Negligence solicitor with plenty of experience in these sorts of case will be happy to talk to you in the first instance about what has happened to you and whether you will be able to claim compensation.

Birchall Blackburn Law has decades of experience supporting people through a clinical negligence claim for compensation. You can simply email or call us and we will give you initial free and confidential advice about claiming compensation, with no obligations.