GP Negligence Claims

Clinical Negligence

Useful information

The relationship between a patient and their GP involves a huge amount of trust and it can be incredibly distressing if you believe that your GP may have been negligent in your treatment. If a mistake by your GP has caused injury or if your illness has been made worse, then it can be even more difficult for you. At Coodes, our lawyers specialising in GP negligence claims understand how upsetting this can be and we will help you bring any resulting claim for compensation if you have been injured by negligent medical treatment or a misdiagnosis by your GP.

General practitioners (GPs) and other healthcare professionals are often our first ‘go to’ when we’re ill. We expect our GP to be able to diagnose and refer us to the correct specialists for treatment, but sometimes sadly this is not the case.

GP Negligence Claims – Examples

Our medical negligence solicitors in Cornwall and Devon can help with a range of GP negligence claims, such as:

Failure by your GP to conduct an adequate examination – when patients present themselves to the GP sometimes ‘red flags’ for conditions are clear and require further investigations. Your GP may completely miss these symptoms or negligently put them down to other less serious conditions. For example, bleeding that occurs anytime outside of woman’s menstrual cycle is a potential symptom of cervical cancer which requires a physical examination to be carried out. Your GP may negligently put this down to a heavy period and fail to examine you.
Failure to refer you to a specialist for further tests – for example, you may present with a persistent cough over a long period of time but not get a timely referral to a cancer specialist for a potential diagnosis of lung cancer.
Failure to act upon, or misinterpreting abnormal test results – abnormal test results, such as blood results, can often be one of the first signs to indicate a problem, such as cancer, an infection or kidney damage. All test results should be accurately assessed and acted upon to avoid your condition becoming worse. For example, a man may have a test to monitor his ‘PSA’ levels, an indicator for further investigation into whether or not he has prostate cancer. These raised levels may not be acted on by GPs in a timely manner or at all
Inappropriate prescription of drugs or failure to review repeat medication. For example, the GP may prescribe you with too much of a medication, such as steroids, which can then result in a number of upsetting and avoidable symptoms.

Any one of these mistakes by GPs can have a long-term impact on your everyday life. GPs play such an important role in our health, so it’s vital that the consequences of any mistakes they make are recognised and learned from.

If any of the above has happened to you, our GP negligence lawyers are here to help and guide you through the process of making a GP negligence claim. We’ve helped many people to claim compensation after GP mistakes so we know exactly how to approach your case to get the best possible result.

Although Coodes’ medical negligence lawyers are based in Cornwall and Devon, we cover the whole of England and Wales and will come and see you wherever you are. We act for clients anywhere in the world so long as they have been injured in England and Wales.

Our medical negligence solicitors specialising in GP neglect claims accept claims on a No Win No Fee basis, meaning that you won’t have to pay for anything unless you win your case.

Please contact us for more information or book an appointment using the form below: