Welcome to our medical misdiagnosis compensation calculator guide. If a medical professional has misdiagnosed you, and this has led you to suffer harm that should’ve been avoided (known as avoidable harm), you could be entitled to claim compensation.
In this guide we first tell you how medical misdiagnosis compensation is calculated. We also tell you what eligibility criteria you need to meet to be able to make a medical negligence claim.
We then discuss how you should go about making a claim, from what evidence you should gather to how long you have to start claiming compensation.
We end this guide by discussing what our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors can do to help you throughout the claims process.
We rely on medical professionals to help us when we’re in need. But sometimes, mistakes can unfortunately happen. If you are suffering because you were misdiagnosed, we want to help you today. Please contact us today by using one of our free contact methods, and have a chat with one of our advisors about your circumstances:
- Call 0800 408 7826.
- Fill out our online ‘contact us’ form.
- Send us a message in our on-screen live chat box.
Jump To A Section
- Medical Misdiagnosis Compensation Calculator
- Could You Be Eligible To Make A Medical Misdiagnosis Claim?
- How To Make A Medical Negligence Claim
- Why Trust Our Panel Of Solicitors With Your Medical Misdiagnosis Claim?
- More Information
Medical Misdiagnosis Compensation Calculator
You can access our online misdiagnosis compensation calculator here, where you can input your details and receive an estimated medical negligence compensation figure. However, it may be more beneficial for you to learn how medical negligence compensation is calculated.
If you have a successful misdiagnosis claim, your medical negligence compensation may be split into two parts – general and special damages.
General damages compensate you for how you’ve been physically and psychologically affected by medical negligence.
Here are a few different factors that can determine the value of your general damages:
- Loss of amenity.
- How painful your avoidable harm is.
- Your prognosis.
You could be asked to attend an independent medical assessment during the misdiagnosis claims process for your harm. Legal professionals can refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), alongside the reports from this assessment, to help them calculate your general damages.
The JCG publishes guideline compensation figures for different types of physical and psychological harm.
Guideline Misdiagnosis Compensation Table
In the table below, we have taken some types of harm from the JCG that could potentially be suffered from a medical misdiagnosis. We have also included their accompanying guideline compensation figures (except for the top figure, which isn’t from the JCG).
Please keep in mind that this table is for guidance only. All medical negligence claims are different, so none of these figures can be guaranteed for any particular case.
| Harm | Severity | Guideline compensation figures | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious types of harm and special damages | Serious | Up to £1,000,000+ | Compensation for suffering multiple serious types of harm and monetary losses such as domestic care costs. |
| Brain damage | Very severe (a) | £344,150 to £493,000 | Quadriplegic cerebral palsy leading to severe physical and cognitive disabilities. |
| Moderate (c)(iii) | £52,550 to £110,720 | Memory and concentration are affected, and the ability to work is reduced. | |
| Bladder | Double incontinence (a) | Up to £224,790 | Loss of function and control to the bowels and bladder. |
| Seriously impaired control (c) | £78,080 to £97,540 | With pain and some incontinence. | |
| Chest | Loss of one lung and/or serious heart damage (a) | £122,850 to £183,190 | With permanent scarring, and prolonged and serious pain. |
| Damage to chest and lungs (c) | £38,210 to £66,920 | Causing continuing disability. | |
| Psychiatric damage | Severe (a) | £66,920 to £141,240 | A very poor prognosis, where all aspects of life have marked problems. |
| Moderate (c) | £7,150 to £23,270 | A good prognosis because there would've been a marked improvement by trial. |
Calculating Special Damages In Your Claim
Special damages compensate you for how you’ve been financially affected by medical negligence.
Some financial losses you could potentially incur as a result of your avoidable harm include:
- Loss of earnings for you requiring time off work to recover.
- Professional and domestic care costs.
- Travel expenses to attend medical appointments.
Being awarded special damages can be extremely valuable, especially if you have any long-term financial losses (for example, if you are unable to return to work at all). Special damages can restore your financial losses to what they once were before you were misdiagnosed.
You must provide evidence of your financial losses though in order to be awarded special damages. As such, please keep any bank statements, receipts, invoices, and payslips that can support you.
Please contact us to find out more about our misdiagnosis compensation calculator and how medical negligence claims are calculated.
Could You Be Eligible To Make A Medical Misdiagnosis Claim?
You could be eligible to make a medical misdiagnosis claim if you can show that medical negligence has occurred. Medical negligence is when you suffer avoidable harm because a medical professional breached their duty of care towards you.
All medical professionals owe their patients a duty of care. This means that they must always provide the correct standard of care to every patient they treat. Thus, it is a breach of duty of care to provide a standard of care that doesn’t meet what is minimally expected from them.
As such, here are the medical negligence claims eligibility criteria:
- A medical professional owed you a duty of care as one of their patients.
- They breached their duty of care by providing substandard care.
- You suffered avoidable harm as a result of this breach of duty.
Not all cases of misdiagnosis would lead to an eligible medical negligence claim. For example, the correct standard of care may have been given, but you are still misdiagnosed because your symptoms are irregular to the condition’s usual symptoms.
Please speak to us today about starting a medical negligence claim if you believe you meet the above eligibility requirements. Below, we go through some examples of how a medical professional could potentially provide substandard care and cause avoidable harm.
How Could A Misdiagnosis Occur?
Here are some examples of how a medical misdiagnosis could potentially occur, leading to an eligible compensation claim:
- You visit your GP because you have common symptoms of bladder cancer (blood in urine, unintentional weight loss, etc.). However, your GP fails to listen to your concerns and doesn’t send you for further testing. Your misdiagnosed cancer progresses as a result, meaning you need more invasive treatment.
- A doctor in a hospital misinterprets your scan image results where another medical professional wouldn’t have. The doctor thus diagnoses you with a sprain instead of a broken ankle. Mistaking a broken ankle for a sprain could result in the foot not healing properly, leading to long-term consequences.
- During a routine check when you’re pregnant, the midwife fails to spot the signs of pre-eclampsia, which should be easily diagnosed. This missed diagnosis causes complications, which leads to your baby being ill.
- Your GP mixes up your test results for another patient’s due to mislabelling. You are thus misdiagnosed with bronchitis when you in fact have lung cancer. The missed diagnosis could affect the chances of a full recovery being made.
These are just a few examples. Medical misdiagnosis could potentially occur in more ways, so please don’t fret if your circumstances haven’t been listed above. We always recommend you speak directly with one of our advisors about your specific situation and how best to use a misdiagnosis compensation calculator.
How To Make A Medical Negligence Claim
Before contacting us to find out whether you have an eligible medical negligence claim for misdiagnosis, you should seek medical attention regarding your avoidable harm. Your medical notes and records can then be used as evidence.
Then you should contact us to confirm whether you have an eligible medical negligence claim for misdiagnosis. If you are eligible for compensation, our advisors can then connect you with a specialist solicitor from our panel. They can get the claims process started for you.
Gathering Evidence To Back Up Your Claim
A part of the claims process includes providing evidence that shows how medical negligence has occurred.
As such, after suffering from a misdiagnosis, you should try and gather:
- Copies of your medical records and notes, including copies of test results and examination notes. This can show what date you first sought treatment for your symptoms, how the correct standard of care wasn’t met, and the extent of your avoidable harm.
- Copies of correspondence (such as emails and letters) relating to any medical appointments you attended.
- Copies of any complaints you made against the healthcare provider.
- Photographs of the visible effects of your avoidable harm.
- Contact details from anyone who was there to witness the substandard care provided by the negligent medical professional. This can include a loved one who attended your appointment with you or another medical professional.
- A personal symptoms and treatments diary with dates.
The thought of collecting all of this evidence on your own can seem daunting. If you are connected with a solicitor from our panel, they can help you collect the evidence that’s needed.
Time Limits For Making A Claim
If you want to start a medical misdiagnosis claim, you must do so within 3 years of either the date medical negligence occurred, or the date you realised medical negligence occurred, as per the Limitation Act 1980.
However, this time limit is paused for claimants who cannot make their own claim. For example, if the claimant is:
- Lacking their mental capacity. For example, if they’ve suffered brain damage from an anaphylactic shock as a result of the misdiagnosis.
- 17 years old or younger.
And the time limit will commence when the claimant either:
- Recovers their full mental capacity (the time limit will run from the date of recovery).
- Turns 18 years old (the time limit will run from the date of their 18th birthday).
In these cases, while the time limit is paused, a litigation friend may be able to make a claim on the claimant’s behalf before the time limit commences again.
If you want to make a medical misdiagnosis claim on behalf of someone else, such as your child, please contact us for more information.
Why Trust Our Panel Of Solicitors With Your Medical Misdiagnosis Claim?
You can trust our panel of solicitors to help you with your medical misdiagnosis claim because they have many years of experience in this legal field, and can offer a range of services to make the claims process as simple for you as possible.
As such, if you have an eligible claim, a medical negligence solicitor from our panel can do the following for you:
- Gather all evidence.
- Send correspondence to the defendant on your behalf.
- Ensure your claim is filed within the time limit.
- Ensure the medical negligence compensation calculator is accurate.
- Update you regularly on the progress of the claim.
- Explain legal jargon.
- Sort out your legal representation if your claim ends up going to court.
What’s more, these services are offered under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which is a No Win No Fee type of agreement.
This means that you don’t pay anything for your solicitor’s services:
- Upfront.
- Ongoing during the claims process.
- If the claim ends up unsuccessful.
If you have a successful medical negligence claim, your solicitor will just take a success fee from your compensation. A success fee is a percentage, which is always legally capped at 25%.
So, to see whether you can receive this help from our panel or for advice on how to use our misdiagnosis compensation calculator, please contact us today about starting a medical misdiagnosis claim. Our advisors can give you free advice on what you can do next:
- Call 0800 408 7826.
- Fill out our online ‘contact us’ form.
- Send us a message in our on-screen live chat box.
More Information
View some of our other medical negligence compensation claim guides here:
- Learn how to use our compensation calculator for death if a loved one of yours has passed away due to medical negligence.
- Find out how to make a sepsis medical negligence claim.
- Learn how to make a blood clot medical negligence claim.
Additionally, you might find these pages helpful:
- General Medical Council (GMC) – find out what good medical practice is expected from doctors.
- Royal College of Nursing (RCN) – find out what duty of care is expected from nurses.
- Gov.UK – find out how to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if you’re missing work to recover from your misdiagnosis.
Thank you for checking out our medical misdiagnosis compensation calculator guide. Please contact us with any questions you have regarding how to claim compensation after a misdiagnosis.