At Oakwood Solicitors Ltd, we understand that waiting for your clinical negligence claim to settle can be frustrating and stressful– especially if you are still experiencing health problems caused by negligence.
However, although our experienced team of legal experts do all they can to push through your claim as quickly and efficiently as possible – we are often at the hands of the defendant (for example, the NHS) to keep things moving on their end – to reach a successful outcome.
And this year, delays to clinical negligence claim settlements reached a record high, new data obtained by APIL shows.
NHS Resolution (NHSR) figures show that the average time between claim notification and settlement now stands at over two years. As a result, a typical clinical negligence claimant has to wait almost nine months longer for their claim to settle when compared to ten years ago. This is an increase of 51%.
Delays have affected claims of all values with claims valued at £1,501 – £25,000 taking almost six months longer, on average, to settle compared to ten years ago. Meanwhile, claims valued at £1million – £2 million are taking over twelve months longer to settle.
Concerns have been raised as these huge delays are likely to increase legal costs for the claimant – with NHSR themselves acknowledging that ‘the longer cases run for, the higher the costs’.
Oakwood Solicitors Ltd, Head of Clinical Negligence Carol Cook highlights the importance of the NHS needing to do more to resolve matters more effectively. She said:
“The NHS have a duty of candor, that is to admit when something has gone wrong. However, in over a decade of working with clients severely affected by the acts and/or omissions of NHS doctors and nurses, I have seen no real shift to make any such admissions when something has gone wrong and there has been no identifiable effort to try and resolve matters quickly.
“This does nothing but to exacerbate my client’s condition, delay them the right and need to access rehabilitative treatment and escalate costs unnecessarily.”
At Oakwood Solicitors Ltd, we aim to conclude our client’s claims as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure you receive the compensation you are entitled to. Whether you have suffered negligence in a hospital, doctors surgery, care home or dental surgery, we may be able to help.
We have a dedicated team of solicitors and paralegals who have many years’ experience between them in running cases of this nature. They are highly trained to deal with all aspects of clinical negligence.
At Oakwood Solicitors Ltd, we want to ensure that clients are not overwhelmed by legal jargon, medical terms that they don’t understand and aim to allow the claims procedure to be as transparent as possible.
If you believe or feel you have a claim, contact us today for a free initial consultation.
Further reading
Medical misdiagnosis or delay – Oakwood Solicitors
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Carol Cook joined Oakwood Solicitors in May 2017 to lead the Medical Negligence Department.
Carol handles a wide range of clinical, cosmetic and dental negligence claims and has years of experi…
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