News broke this week of thousands of scans in University Hospital Kerry having to be review after it was discovered that several patients were given incorrect diagnosis.
It is understood that over 40,000 scans will be reviewed in a process that has been underway for months already.
Naturally, this has led to major concern from patients about the care and advice they were given when attending at the hospital.
The story was covered extensively by national media.
If you or a family member has concerns that the treatment they received may have amounted to medical negligence, you can contact us on [email protected] or at 052 612 43 33.
Medical negligence is a rapidly expanding area of litigation in Ireland. Medical Negligence is essentially an act or omission by a health care professional which is below the accepted standard of care and which results in injury or death to a patient.
There are four main steps in proving medical negligence:
- Duty of Care – a legal duty is owed whenever a health care provider or hospital undertakes to treat a patient
- Breach Duty of Care – it must be shown that the health care provider in question failed to follow the relevant standard of care
- Injury – the breach of duty must have caused injury and;
- Damage – Regardless of whether or not the health care provider was negligent, there is no basis for a claim in negligence without damage, be it monetary, physical or emotional.
Medical negligence can happen because of:
- Diagnosis – i.e. misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
- Treatment – i.e. errors in the medical treatment such as incorrect medication, surgical errors, exposure to infection (MRSA etc) or
- Disclosure – i.e. failure to inform the patient of the risks of the treatment of procedure.
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