Ask a solicitor: Was my doctor negligent?

It has impacted me working on the farm, and I am wondering whether there are any legal options that I can consider regarding seeking redress from the hospital I attended.

Dear Reader,

I am sorry to hear of your predicament. This certainly could be investigated, and you could look into whether it is possible to bring a claim against the hospital or the appropriate health authority for negligence or medical negligence.

In order to do this, you first have to obtain your medical records. Medical negligence is defined as when members of a hospital, clinic staff or doctors, fall below an acceptable standard of care, which directly causes an injury or disease to allow the health of the person to deteriorate as a result. 

Typically, to prove medical negligence, it must be shown that a decision that was made by the medical practitioner who treated the patient was not reflected or reflective of a generally accepted practice.

These claims are certainly difficult to prove, and in order to proceed, you would have to take a number of steps, including the following:

• You should engage a solicitor in an initial consultation, and they will advise you.
• It is likely that they will advise that you will have to obtain an expert report from a medical practitioner commenting on liability or whether the requisite standard of care has been met.

The practitioner would need to comment, in particular, as to whether the hospital, doctor or clinic had met the appropriate standard of care. In order for them to complete such a report, they would have to review all your medical records, and your solicitor would have to obtain your medical records.

In order to do this, typically, you would have to sign authorities, and the medical records would then be provided to your solicitor in due course. Please note that it can take up to 40 days or longer to obtain such records.

If the report from the expert was supportive, and the health authority, hospital, or clinician did not provide the appropriate standard of care, you may possibly have a basis for bringing a medical negligence claim. 

It is of note that you should note when instructing an expert, it is typical that you would have to instruct an expert outside the jurisdiction, as most medical practitioners in the Republic of Ireland will typically not act in a case that involves, for example, a local health authority. Accordingly, obtaining a report can be quite costly.

If this report commenting on liability is supportive of bringing a claim, you would also then have to obtain a report in respect of what is called Quantum, which would need to specifically comment in respect of the injuries that you have suffered arising from the potential negligence.

The next steps would then be that your solicitor would have to send a letter of claim or initiating letter to the appropriate defendants, who would either be the health authority or hospital, and if there is no response following on from the letter of claim, then typically, proceedings would have to be brought.

Your legal team, which would include solicitors and barristers, will advise as to what the appropriate court is, and it would depend on the level of damages that are being sought.

Please note that medical negligence matters are complex, and I would advise that you instruct a solicitor immediately, and more than likely, your solicitor will also need to engage the services of a barrister.

It is important to note that there is a Statute of Limitation in respect of medical negligence claims, which is two years less one day from the date the injury was sustained. 

This would mean that you would need to bring your claim within this timeframe, or else you would lose your right to claim. 

It should be noted that there are certain circumstances or exceptions to this, such as if you are not immediately aware of your injuries or they took a while to develop and this will also be factored in when considering the Statute.