Is Private Healthcare Leading to Unnecessary Surgeries?
Unnecessary Surgeries Carried Out By Spire Healthcare Employees
Recent events in the news have brought to light a number of cases of rogue professionals performing unnecessary surgeries. The private firm Spire Healthcare has now been tied to two separate instances in which surgeons have subjected patients to treatment that they did not need. In 2017, breast surgeon Ian Paterson was found guilty of ‘wounding with intent’ and unlawfully wounding nine women and one man that he had treated between 1997 and 2011. More recently, shoulder surgeon Michael Walsh has now been found guilty of performing surgery on patients either unnecessarily or insufficiently.
The fact that both individuals worked for a private medical company has called to attention the dangers of the private healthcare sector when it involves a financial incentive to be carrying out operations.
If you believe that you may have been the victim of unnecessary surgery or treatment, AWH Solicitors can help you to claim negligence compensation against a medical professional.
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Claiming Compensation for Unnecessary Surgery
When your health has suffered as a result of surgical negligence, we believe you deserve to be compensated. In addition to unnecessary surgeries, surgical negligence incorporates a wide range of things. This includes:
- Performing the wrong operation
- Performing an operation in the wrong place
- Incorrect dosage of anaesthetic
- Damaging nerves, tissues or muscles
- Damaging internal organs
- Failing to notice damage to organs
- Leaving foreign objects inside a patient’s body
- Failure to effectively stitch or dress an open wound
- Performing surgery on the wrong patient
- Infections that are associated with contaminated surgical implants
- Failing to notice that a patient is developing an infection
- Death that is caused by surgical error
If you have suffered at the hands of a surgeon who works for a private practice, then the legal action will be taken against this individual.
Read more about surgical negligence claims
How will my Claim be Calculated?
There are a number of factors that would be considered in the compensation calculation. The factors that would be considered are:
- The loss of earning that you may have suffered due to not being able to work after your unnecessary operation
- Your overall medical prognosis and any follow up treatment that you will need
- How the unnecessary surgery has had an impact on your life
How long will the Claim Process take?
In the same way that it is difficult to estimate the amount of compensation you could get from taking legal action against an individual working for a private practice, it is also difficult to say exactly how long the medical negligence claims process could take. There will likely be two steps to the overall process. They are:
- Firstly, proving liability for who was responsible for your injury or illness.
- Secondly, providing the medical evidence for how the resulting condition or original injury has affected you physically.
In some cases, it can take a while for the liability to be decided, and this can mean that the process could potentially be longer. However, it should be that the liability will rest with the private surgeon in cases of this nature. This means that the case should be more straightforward with the right legal assistance. We can provide the best possible support when you have been the victim of medical negligence, and even may have been given the wrong surgery.
Contact us today to start a discussion about your medical negligence claim.
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