The issues involved with making a medical malpractice claim.

It’s a subject no one ever wants to consider when thinking about our healthcare. We put our lives and wellbeing in the hands of medical staff everyday and we rely on getting the very best treatment during illness or an emergency.

Our trust is based on the lengthy education process that our doctors and nurses have to go through, and we’re confident that staff are properly qualified and able before they ever start treating patients.

But everybody is capable of making mistakes and there are a thousand reasons why something could go wrong with treatment or unexpected complications occur as a result of mistakes made by a medical team or institution; and just because some wrong was done to you unintentionally doesn’t necessarily make the reality of the consequences any easier to deal with.

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There has been a lot of coverage in the press recently about the state of Britain’s NHS, particularly regarding the cleanliness and performance of hospitals.

We’re dealing with the, often overwhelming, problem of containing the MRSA virus, which spreads around hospitals due to poor hygiene practises and can vary in degrees of seriousness ranging from a mild illness to causing death in particularly vulnerable patients.

And of course, our latest viral crisis is the swine flu has also been making the news in relation to poor service and cleanliness in our hospitals.

The unfortunate truth is that many people claim that they or their loved ones were affected by diseases such as these as a direct result of negligence or incompetence on the part of hospitals or medical teams.

We all understand the pressure put on our NHS by outbreaks such as these but it isn’t always an acceptable excuse for the poor standards some hospitals struggle to maintain.

So when does an issue go from being an individual or institution under strain, to being their direct responsibility?

The basic definition of medical malpractice is when a care provider fails to fulfil their duty to you as a patient resulting in injury or illness to you.

Whenever this duty is breached it becomes a malpractice issue.

The situations and reasons for wanting to make a claim vary widely and unfortunately could be something serious and life changing.

The negligence of another may have resulted in the death of a loved one, for example, or procedures used in the birth of a child may have resulted in serious birth defects. In either situation you might wish to make a claim not merely to fight for justice but for financial compensation. The extra care a child might need throughout their lives could be expensive, or the death of a spouse might leave you struggling financially as well as emotionally.

Whatever your reasons, pursuing your claim could mean a huge difference to your life and wellbeing.

It might not be an easy fight; it could be very demanding and difficult for you emotionally and daunting facing a professional body to accuse them of negligence.

You will need to prove that whoever was involved failed in their duty to you, that they were directly responsible for your situation. You may need to gather evidence and possibly witnesses to back up your accusation.

You shouldn’t worry about the implications of your accusation. As long as you are genuine and are telling the truth as it happened then the responsibility lies with whoever you feel was negligent. Medical staff are required by law to hold up to date Professional Liability Insurance which will them cover their defence but, ultimately, if they were indeed at fault, then they must accept the consequences.

If you are serious about claiming you should speak to a professional like <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=" ">Accident Consult</a>.

They will go through your case with you and review the details, then work with you to get you the very best results.