Royal Surrey Hospital Negligence Claims Guide

By Joanne Jeffries. Last Updated 17th September 2021. Welcome to our guide to Royal Surrey hospital negligence claims.

This is an online guide that covers medical negligence at Royal Surrey Hospital, and why patients may be able to make a compensation claim if they are harmed by a medical professional. We aim to show how you, yourself, may be eligible to make a claim, and also how a medical negligence lawyer can assist you in processing your personal injury claim.

Royal Surrey hospital negligence claims advice

Each claim tends to have its own idiosyncrasies, making it somewhat unique. Because of this, you may find that this guide doesn’t answer every question you have. If this is indeed the case, then please take some time out of your day to speak to our claims team on 0800 073 8801. A claim adviser will answer all of your questions for you, and also explain how the service we offer can help you to get the compensation you are eligible for.

Select A Section:

A Guide To Compensation Amounts For The Royal Surrey Hospital
What Is Medical Negligence In Law?
How Could Hospital Patients Be Affected By Negligent Care?
£11 Million Damages Awarded For A Girl With Catastrophic Brain Damage
How Much Compensation Has The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Paid Out? – Updated September 2021
£53 Million Paid Out By Surrey NHS Foundation Trust For Negligent Care
How You Could Make A Claim Against The NHS
No Win No Fee Claims For Negligent Care By The Royal Surrey Hospital
Start A Medical Negligence Case Against The Royal Surrey Hospital
Doctors We Work With Covering Surrey
What Else You May Need To Know

A Guide To Compensation Amounts For The Royal Surrey Hospital

This detailed guide to making a compensation claim for hospital negligence at Royal Surrey Hospital, should equip you with the information you need related to medical malpractice, in order to approach your claim from a position of understanding. This guide begins by explaining what clinical negligence is, and how a claimant will need to prove negligence took place in order to be able to make a claim. We then move on to take a look at some of the many ways that clinical negligence can harm a patient.

The next part of this guide moves on to look at a real-world case study, that shows how a girl successfully claimed £11 million for catastrophic brain damage. We look at the reason for the claim, how to claim proceeded, why the settlement was made, and how the settlement was structured.

You will also find a table in the middle of this guide, that shows key statistics related to compensation paid by the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation in 2019/20. We follow this section by examining why many of these payments were made, and how over £53 million was paid out for claims by the local NHS Trust.

The next part of this guide covers aspects that relate to the claims process itself. We have provided some in-depth information about the process of making a compensation claim against the NHS. You will also find an explanation of how a No Win No Fee solicitor can help you to make a claim, whilst mitigating many of the financial risks of doing so. We have also explained how to get your claim underway, and how our new claims process works.

You won’t find a personal injury claims calculator on this page. We prefer to give personalised evaluations based on your own unique circumstances. If you speak to our claims team on the number at the bottom of this page, they can arrange for a solicitor to value your claim for you. A claims adviser will also answer any questions you have, and provide you with critical information such as the personal injury claims time limit that will apply in your own case.

What Is Medical Negligence In Law?

Before we get into the meat of this guide, we need to explain what medical negligence is, how it is construed, and why the onus is on the injured party to prove that clinical negligence took place. If we were to compare a number of negligence claims, we would find a common theme. In each case, the following three statements would be true.

A medical professional or a healthcare facility had a duty of care towards the injured patient, to never cause them harm unnecessarily
A negligent act on the part of the medical professional or healthcare facility caused harm to the patient. This could have been a physical injury at the time the negligence took place, such as a dentist damaging a healthy tooth. Or it could have been harm that did not come to light at the time of the negligence. For example, a patient is diagnosed with an illness they contracted through cross-infection whilst staying in a hospital, after they had been discharged and returned home
The medical professional or healthcare facility could have taken different action, that would not have harmed the patient. Meaning the harm that the patient suffered was avoidable

Something that needs expanding on is the concept of necessary harm. Sometimes, a doctor has to prescribe a treatment that they know will have a negative effect on the life of the patient, but will hopefully result in a cure and full recovery. A good example of this would be chemotherapy or radiotherapy used to treat cancer. Both of these treatments are harmful, and will cause the patient’s health to suffer in the short-term. However, once the cancer has been treated and the treatment stopped, the patient should recover their full health again. Obviously, a claim would not be possible in the case. Only in cases where the patient’s health suffered unnecessarily could a claim be possible.

The onus is on the patient to prove that clinical negligence took place, in order for them to be able to make a successful claim. We will talk about this in more detail further down this guide.

If you would like to find out whether in your own circumstances you could have a valid negligence claim, please speak to our claims team on the number near the bottom of the page. A claim adviser will evaluate your claim for you, and let you know whether you have a potentially valid claim or not.

How Could Hospital Patients Be Affected By Negligent Care?

Clinical negligence can take many shapes and forms, including mistakes, omissions and oversights. Below, we are going to take a look at some of the ways that negligence could harm a patient, which could leave the injured party in a position to have a medical negligence solicitor process a claim for them.

Misdiagnosis or Late Diagnosis

When a medical condition is poorly diagnosed, either late or entirely incorrectly, this can have some serious repercussions on the patient’s health. For example:

Misdiagnosis – the illness can go untreated and become worse, because the wrong kind of treatment is administered for an illness the patient is not suffering from
Late diagnosis – in some cases, such as with a cancer patient, a delay in diagnosis can lead to the condition becoming far worse than if it had been treated sooner

Pharmaceutical Errors

There are a number of ways that a patient could end up taking the wrong, harmful medication through some kind of error, for example:

A mistake made by a pharmacist – dispensing the entirely wrong medication
A GP error – prescribing the wrong medication entirely
Mistakes at a hospital – whereby an inpatient is given the wrong medication, that was intended for another patient

Surgical Errors

Undergoing a surgical procedure always comes with some attached risks. However, these risks can escalate significantly when negligence occurs. For example:

A surgeon could slip with a scalpel and cut the patient in the wrong place
An anaesthetist could administer a harmful amount of anaesthetic
Lax post-op care could lead to the patient suffering some kind of infection

Injuries Caused by Dentists

When you visit your dentist, they are expected to operate to the same standards as a surgeon in a hospital. As is every medical professional, regardless of their work duties. A negligence dentist can cause injuries such as:

Damage to otherwise healthy teeth
Cuts to the gums, lips, or face with potential scarring
Damage to the jawbone

Mistakes Made by a GP

Your GP is the gatekeeper to the rest of the health system. They are responsible for providing an initial diagnosis, and then either administer treatment and/or medication (in the case of minor issues) or refer you to the correct healthcare unit for further treatment (in the case of serious health issues). When a GP makes a mistake, it can have serious consequences on the health of the patient. If the injured patient is able to prove that the GP was negligence, they could be able to make a claim for the harm they have suffered.

£11 Million Damages Awarded For A Girl With Catastrophic Brain Damage

The details that this case study is based on, were originally published by Surrey Live in 2017. We are going to examine the circumstances of the claim in more detail. This real-world example of a claim covers birth brain damage compensation.

In this case, a young girl suffered birth injury brain damage, and this left her severely disabled. This would last her entire life as there was no chance of her recovering after suffering such catastrophic brain damage at birth in the Royal Surrey Hospital maternity ward. After the claim was successfully resolved, she received £11 million in compensation. This compensation was paid by the Surrey Hospital Trust.

The girl suffered severe brain damage during her birth at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. The damage was caused by the brain being starved of oxygen for an extended period during the birth. This resulted in a significant level of life-changing disability, as the girl cannot even sit up on her own. She will be wheelchair-bound and require around the clock care for the rest of her life.

As a result of this heart-wrenching event, the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust was sued for damages. The claim went to court for settlement, and the NHS Trust admitted liability. It was proven that the mother had not received adequate care during labour. As a result of this, the birth was delayed and during this delay, it was not noticed that the baby was in trouble.

The compensation settlement including a single one-off payment of £6 million, and then an annual payment to the girl. Starting at £157,500 a year, and then ramping up to £250,000 from the girl’s 13^th birthday, with a final increase on her 19^th birthday to £323,000. Furthermore, the annual payment is index-linked to inflation.

This case study is of interest because it was such a large settlement, with the NHS Trust fully admitting liability from the outset. However, despite admitting liability the NHS Trust did not offer an out of court settlement. Instead, the claim went to court and judged, with the resultant settlement being laid out by the court itself.

How Much Compensation Has The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Paid Out? – Updated September 2021

The table below shows statistics related to compensation claims for the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, including the Royal Surrey Hospital Guildford for the period 2019/20.

Edit
Accounting Year	Total Payments Made	Number Of Claims made
2019/20	£5,308,553.97	23

The data for this table was taken from an NHS report.

£53 Million Paid Out By Surrey NHS Foundation Trust For Negligent Care

The data for this section of the guide was extrapolated from a recourse originally published by Surrey Live in January, 2018. The premise of the original article was that mistakes made by NHS staff in Surrey had resulted in £123 million in personal injury claims in the previous 5 years.

Of this total, £53 million was paid out by the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, due to claims against its staff. A representative of the Trust has stated that the Trust is committed providing quality care, but that sometimes things go wrong.

Some claims take years to come to a resolution, and then there are also claims that are instigated due to incidents that took place many years ago, sometimes decades. This happens when a patient is unaware that they had a valid basis for a claim until much later.

Mistakes made during childbirth are the most common reason for claimants to pursue damages against the Trust, and these can be heavyweight claims, with compensation being paid for the entire life of the injured party.

Something that is work considering is that although the claims are bought against the NHS Trust, it is not the trust that ultimately pays the compensation. Instead, it is the NHS Litigation Authority, the organisation that provides every NHS Trust in the country with indemnity cover.

How You Could Make A Claim Against The NHS

If you have suffered some form of harm due to negligence at the Royal Surrey Hospital, then below, you are going to learn about the general process of actioning a compensation claim.

The process starts with making negligence complaints to Royal Surrey Hospital. Once you have made a complaint, it will be evaluated. If you have accused a medical professional of negligence, a panel of doctors working for the NHS Trust will evaluate the incident, and decide whether negligence actually took place. If the panel rules that no negligence took place, and the Trust does not admit liability, you will need to be able to prove that contrary to this decision, you were harmed by negligence.

A solicitor can handle your claim for you. The solicitor will help you to gather evidence that can be used to support your claim. An important aspect of this is getting yourself examined by an independent medical professional. The results of this examination will be used in two ways. Firstly, it will show your lawyer how bad your injuries were, and whether they will affect your life in the future. This allows the lawyer to value your claim accurately, and advise you on how much compensation you might be able to claim. Secondly, the results can be submitted as evidence to support your claim.

Once your lawyer has submitted all of this evidence to the Trust’s legal team, then the Trust may have a change of heart, and admit liability. This could result in an out of court settlement being offered. You don’t have to take this settlement, you can renegotiate, or rely on the legal system to place a value on your claim. If the Trust doesn’t admit liability at this stage, you can then take your claim to court, where the evidence and circumstances of the claim will be evaluated, and a decision made as to whether you were harmed due to negligence. If it is ruled that you were, then the court will also rule on a compensation settlement that you will receive.

If you need this process explained to you in more detail, you can call our claims team and speak to one of our claim advisers. They can talk you through this process, so you understand how best to proceed with your claim.

No Win No Fee Claims For Negligent Care By The Royal Surrey Hospital

If you decide to use the services of a lawyer working under a No Win No Fee agreement, then you won’t pay any legal fees until your claim has been a success. This means that many of the financial risks of making a claim have been mitigated.

You won’t be asked to pay a fee to a lawyer for them to start working on your claim, and you won’t be charged any ongoing fees by the solicitor as they are processing your claim, even if this takes months or even years. You also won’t be charged any legal fees if your claim fails, and you do not receive any compensation at all.

The only time you pay compensation is when the lawyer has received a compensation payment for you. At this stage, the solicitor will collect their pre-agreed fee by deducting it from the amount of money received, and then you will then be given what is left over.

As you can see, you don’t pay a thing until you have won a compensation settlement. If you would like to know more about the way this fee agreement works, then please speak to one of our claim advisers today, they can answer your questions and also help to get your claim underway.

Start A Medical Negligence Case Against The Royal Surrey Hospital

If you have been harmed due to hospital gross negligence, and you would like to discuss your claim and the compensation amounts for Royal Surrey Hospital negligence you may be able to claim, then please contact our claims team on 0800 073 8801. A claim adviser will be able to help you get your claim started.

Doctors We Work With Covering Surrey

To have your claim valued, and find out the level of Royal Surrey Hospital negligence payout you might receive, you will need to go for a medical examination. You could consider using one of these local doctors:

Edit
Doctor	Address
Stephen Adams	Somers House
	inkfield Corner
	Redhill
	Surrey
	RH1 1BB
Jeremy Harris	The Vineyard Surgery
	35 The Vineyard
	Richmond
	Surrey
	TW10 6PP

Could I make Royal Surrey Hospital negligence claims for a data breach?

As a data controller, Royal Surrey Hospital probably has quite a number of pieces of personal information on you if you are a patient there or if you work there. Therefore, they should take steps to protect the privacy and security of that data. This extends to documents held in filing cabinets, to information stored on computer and cloud based systems. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, which incorporates the UK’s application of GDPR, those who suffer non material or material damages because of a data breach could be eligible for compensation. They could claim compensation for not only the financial impact of a data breach, which could come from identity fraud or theft, but also for the emotional damage you could suffer. After all, having your personal data breached could feel a little like you have been burgled. This could lead to distress, anxiety and other psychological and psychiatric injuries. A legal precedent was set in 2015 that could allow you to claim for psychological injuries in a similar fashion as you would for personal injury claims.

To make a data breach claim, however, you would need to be able to evidence wrongdoing on the part of the hospital. This could mean they’d left your hospital notes in an insecure place, leading to them being accessed by someone else that should not have accessed them. It could also include incidents whereupon your personal data is sent to your old address, when you have provided a new one. There are many different incidents that could lead to a data breach, but if you could prove that the hospital had done something wrong and the breach had harmed you, you could be eligible for compensation. Our solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, have years of experience in helping claimants get the compensation made deserve. We could help with data breach claims too.