Wrong Diagnosis – Can You Claim Compensation?

Receiving the wrong diagnosis can be emotionally and physically difficult for a number of reasons.

If your eventual diagnosis turns out to be much worse than the one that you originally received, then there is the chance that you may have lost out on valuable time to start the correct treatment for your condition. On the flip side, if the original misdiagnosis that you received overestimated the serious nature of your condition, then you may have been put through needless worry and suffering.

If you have suffered because of misdiagnosis, then you can likely claim compensation by making a medical negligence claim against your doctor or the medical institution that treated you.

Read more about medical negligence claims

Receiving the wrong diagnosis is referred to as being misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosis is attributed to clinical negligence. There are three categories of claims in clinical negligence, these being:

• Total misdiagnosis, in which the symptoms are not diagnosed at all
• Wrongful diagnosis, in which the symptoms are incorrectly diagnosed
• Late diagnosis, in which the symptoms are diagnosed beyond a reasonable time lapse

In some of the more severe cases, patients may undergo the wrong treatment or surgery, or even have organs removed due to the wrong diagnosis. If you can prove that the suffering you have experienced is worse than if you were correctly diagnosed then you can sue your doctor for misdiagnosis.

You may receive the wrong diagnosis for a number of different reasons. Your doctor may not carry out the necessary tests, or they might carry out the incorrect tests for the symptoms that you are initially presenting.

In some cases, patients who are assessed by junior or less experienced doctors can be wrongly diagnosed if a more experienced professional has not double checked their diagnosis.

Because of the different levels of seriousness in cases of this type, there are a number of factors that have to be considered when compensation is being calculated. These considerations include:

• If your actual condition or illness has worsened because of the misdiagnosis
• If you have had surgery that you didn’t need as a result of your incorrect diagnosis
• If you have received needless treatment for the wrong illness or condition 

However, this list is not exhaustive, and if you have suffered in any way because of misdiagnosis then you can likely make a claim for compensation.