GP Negligence Claims

Your GP will usually be the first person you see when you or a loved one experience a health issue, so their judgement and the actions they take are critical to ensure you get the right treatment quickly, especially if you have a serious condition.

GP negligence can therefore have a very negative impact, causing a medical condition to be misdiagnosed or diagnosed late. This in turn can lead to a significantly worse outcome for you or your loved one, with the potential for long-term health consequences that could otherwise have been avoided.

Wolferstans’ medical negligence solicitors have extensive experience helping a wide range of clients to claim compensation for GP negligence. This compensation can often be essential to ensure you get all the help and support you need to manage the consequences of GP negligence, so having the right legal guidance is crucial.

Our expertise means we can ensure all of the relevant facts are brought to light and considered when building your case, giving you the strongest chance of a fair outcome. With our particular experience dealing with GP negligence, we can offer a highly accurate valuation for your claim, ensuring you do not make the mistake of settling for less than you may truly be entitled to.

We appreciate that most people would prefer to avoid court proceedings wherever possible and with our strong expertise in non-confrontational dispute resolution, we can usually find an out-of-court solution. This not only make the process less stressful for you, it is also normally much faster and less expensive than court action.

We offer a free initial no obligation consultation during which we will be able to tell you if you have a claim worth investigating further.

To arrange your consultation please contact the new client team on 01752 292204.

Our GP negligence claims service

We help clients throughout England and Wales with all types of GP negligence, including claims related to:

Misdiagnosis and late diagnosis
Failure to attend a home visit
Failure to order appropriate diagnostic tests
Failure to correctly interpret test results
Failure to refer patients to appropriate specialists
Negligent medical record keeping
Inappropriate prescription of drugs

How GP negligence claims work

Our clinical negligence lawyers will expertly guide you through the entire process of making a compensation claim for GP negligence.

A typical GP negligence claim will involve:

Building your case e.g. applying for medical records, collecting witness evidence and consulting independent medical experts.
Contacting the relevant GP surgery with the details of your claim.
Ensuring the defendant responds to your claim in a timely fashion.
Assessing the defendant’s response and advising you of your options.
Negotiating with the defendant and/or using alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as mediation or independent evaluation, to secure a suitable settlement.
Submitting your claim to the relevant court and representing you at a court hearing where required to resolve the matter.

Find out more about the process of making a clinical negligence claim.

Funding a GP negligence compensation claim

We believe everyone with valid grounds for a claim should have the right to claim compensation for GP negligence and get the support they need to deal with the consequences of that negligence.

For this reason, we offer a ‘no win, no fee’ GP negligence claims service, meaning you do not need to pay anything towards your legal fees and expenses up front to start a claim.

With this approach, also known as a conditional fee agreement, you will only contribute towards your legal costs if your claim is successful. The amount you pay will then be determined based on a pre-agreed percentage of the compensation secured.

Alternative funding options include legal expenses insurance, which is often offered alongside home insurance, as well as with some bank accounts and credit cards. We will be happy to discuss whether this may be a viable option for your claim during your initial free consultation.

To discuss your options for covering the cost of a GP negligence claim, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Find out more about funding a medical negligence claim.

Our expertise in GP negligence claims

We have helped clients secure substantial compensation payments for GP negligence over many years, giving us the experience you need to ensure no detail is missed when building your case.

Wolferstans is accredited by the Law Society for Clinical Negligence, recognising our particular expertise in this area. We are also Lexcel accredited by the Law Society for excellence in legal practice management and client care.

Various members of our medical negligence team are also on the Law Society and AvMA (Action against Medical Accidents) Specialist Clinical Negligence Panels and have been accredited by APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) as Clinical Negligence Specialists and Brain Injury Specialists.

Find out more about our medical negligence claims team.

Common questions about GP negligence claims

There are various different time limits depending on who the claim is being made for and the circumstances surrounding the claim.

If you are making a claim for yourself, you will normally have 3 years from when the GP negligence occurred or when you found out it may have occurred.
If you are making a claim for someone aged under 18, you will normally have until they turned 18 to bring a claim for them.
If you were under 18 when the negligence occurred but have since turned 18, you will typically have until your 21st birthday to bring a claim.
If bringing a claim for someone who lacks the mental capacity to do so themselves, there is generally no time limit to make a claim.
If bringing a claim related to someone who died as a result of GP negligence, you will normally have 3 years from the date of death to bring a claim, as long as they died within the original 3-year time limit. You may also be able to carry on a claim brought by the deceased before they passed away.

Understanding the various time limits and when they apply can be complicated, so it is strongly recommended to speak to a specialist medical negligence solicitor no matter how long ago the negligence occurred.

Depending on the circumstances, you can typically claim two types of damages:

Special damages – Covering specific financial losses incurred up to the date of settlement, e.g. paying for private treatment or buying special equipment to deal with the health consequences of GP negligence, as well as covering costs such as lost earnings.

General damages – Covering non-financial losses e.g. pain and suffering and changes to your lifestyle, as well as future financial losses and expenses you expect to incur as a result of the injuries caused by GP negligence.

A doctor simply making a mistake does not necessarily mean they will be considered to have acted negligently. To help you claim compensation, we will need to be able to show that the care you or your loved one received from your GP fell below medically acceptable standards

To prove this, we will need to collect various types of evidence, including:

Medical records
Witness evidence
Independent medical expert’s evidence

Further information about GP negligence claims

For more information about GP negligence compensation claims and all types of medical negligence claims, please take a look at our news, blogs and our series of helpful leaflets covering specific issues.

Start a GP negligence claim with us today

To arrange a free initial no obligation consultation and find out more about starting a GP negligence claim: