Delayed Diagnosis Compensation

Examples of delay in diagnosis include a medical professional: 

• Failing to read or report on an X-ray
• Reading an X-ray, but failing to spot a problem such as a fracture
• Failing to order the necessary tests and scans
• Failing to properly respond to test results
• Failing to refer you to a specialist 
• Not prescribing the correct or adequate medication at an early stage

This is not an exhaustive list.

You might experience more than one of these delays at a time. For example, your doctor may fail to respond to test results which have come back positive, meaning that they fail to refer you for treatment or to prescribe you necessary medication. 

A delayed diagnosis can affect your health and lifestyle, and may lead to further health complications developing down the line. Even if the delayed diagnosis was a complete accident, you deserve to receive delayed diagnosis compensation so that you can move forward with your life without the past hanging over you.

Many delays in diagnosis are down to human error – medical negligence. Tiredness, inexperience and a sheer lack of hands on deck can all lead to human error happening. This can occur at any time, however with the NHS being as understaffed as it is, and medical professionals being as overworked as they are, delays as a result of human error are becoming more frequent.

The medical professionals in the UK more often than not do a fantastic job and are caring towards all their patients. However, they are only human after all, and so sometimes mistakes do happen.

When a misdiagnosis or a delay in diagnosis and/or treatment happens to you it can have a lasting impact on your life, so although your suffering might have been caused by a complete accident, you should consider how you have been affected and how you might be in the future. A delayed diagnosis compensation claim can help you with the financial impact of the misdiagnosis, including the likely financial impact the misdiagnosis will have in the future. 

Accident and emergency departments are where many cases of delayed diagnosis occur. This is largely due to the fact that A&E frequently becomes extremely busy, which means that doctors and other medical professionals can struggle to manage such a high volume of patients. This inevitably means that some patients can get overlooked, leading to a delay in diagnosis. Because of the often critical nature of injury and illness found in A&E departments, if there is a delay and a person’s condition rapidly declines, the doctors and nurses responsible for that patient could be deemed negligent.

Delayed diagnosis compensation claims are common where surgery and birth negligence happened. In these sorts of medical situations, time is often of the essence, so if diagnoses aren’t made quickly enough it could lead to a serious error occurring which can affect the patient for life. For example, a mother needs an emergency caesarean-section but medical staff don’t diagnose this quickly enough, the mother and baby could end up distressed and suffer unnecessarily.

Your general practitioner could also subject you to a delayed diagnosis. If they fail to diagnose a serious health condition, leaving it untreated and un-medicated, this is considered to be medical negligence. A delay in diagnosis from a GP might not seem too serious, but think – they are your first port of call when you suspect you’re ill. Many patients visit their GP when they find a lump or another symptom of cancer, but unfortunately it is common that these symptoms get overlooked or misdiagnosed at first.

If you believe that you have been subject to a delay in diagnosis and you have suffered as a result, it’s time to take action. You only have three years from the date of delay – or the date that you noticed that the delay had occurred – to begin your delayed diagnosis compensation claim.

You could for example make a delayed diagnosis claim for:

• A delay in diagnosis and treatment of fractures
• A delay in diagnosis and treatment of cancer
• A delay in diagnosis and treatment of infections

This is not an exhaustive list.

When you make a claim for compensation after medical negligence delayed diagnosis, there will have to be an investigation into your case, with legal and medical negligence experts working together to establish what has happened and how you should best be compensated.

In every legal case in the UK, compensation is carefully calculated by assessing a range of variables, including how much physical pain you have been caused, how much mental suffering you have been caused in addition to physical suffering, and whether you have suffered any financial losses as a result of what has happened to you.

Claim delayed diagnosis compensation with AWH

Every penny of compensation you receive in a successful claim is calculated and awarded for a reason. When you begin you delayed diagnosis claim, your medical negligence solicitor will be able to run through the claims process with you, answering any questions you may have. Our expert medical negligence solicitors can help with claims against the NHS (read more on suing the NHS for negligence) and private institutions.

Did a delay in diagnosis cause you to suffer? We can help you claim the delayed diagnosis compensation you deserve.