Calculating Compensation For Medical Negligence

By Lewis Presley. Last Updated 2nd September 2024. In this guide, we will explain how you could use our compensation calculator for medical negligence. Have you suffered an injury or worsening of your condition as a result of medical negligence? Have you been harmed as the result of a breach of duty of care on the part of a healthcare professional? If so, you may be able to claim compensation for the harm you were caused.

Everybody seeking medical attention is entitled to a minimum standard of care. When this standard is deviated from, this can cause you to be injured or for your condition to get worse than it otherwise would have. If this is the case, you may be able to claim for the negative impact that you’ve experienced.

Calculating Compensation For Medical Negligence

Our compensation calculator could help you assess how much your claim is worth. Furthermore, you can get in touch with an advisor on our team for more free legal advice. In the event that they feel your claim has a good chance of success, they could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel to work on your claim.

This guide will help answer the following questions:

How is compensation for medical negligence calculated?
What kinds of injuries could I claim for?
How could the services of a No Win No Fee solicitor benefit me?

If you’d like to get in touch with a member of our team today, you can:

Call 0800 408 7826
Use our contact form
Speak with an advisor using the live chat feature to the bottom right of this screen

Jump To A Section

How To Use A Compensation Calculator For Medical Negligence
Compensation Calculator For Medical Negligence Claims
What Is Medical Negligence?
What Things Can You Claim For After Harm Caused By Medical Negligence?
Common Types Of Medical Negligence
How Much Could I Expect To Claim For Medical Negligence?
No Win No Fee Claim Agreements For Medical Negligence Claims
Get Free Legal Advice From Our Team
Ask Our Team To Calculate Your Medical Negligence Payout
Resources And Related Case Studies

How To Use A Compensation Calculator For Medical Negligence

In order to use a medical negligence compensation calculator, you’ll be asked to input a few details about how the incident occurred and the effect that it has had on you. It’s important to note that you cannot be compensated twice for the same incident. For this reason, it’s best to pursue a compensation claim once the full scope of your injuries has been determined.

You can also input the value of any loss of earnings you’ve experienced into the calculator for them to be taken into account. However, our online calculator will not assess the value of any other special damages you’ve experienced.

For a more all-encompassing assessment of the value of your claim, get in touch with one of our advisors today. You could be connected with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel if you have a valid claim.

Compensation Calculator For Medical Negligence Claims

Using a compensation calculator for medical negligence won’t give you an exact estimate or amount, but it can give you a broad idea of what you could receive if you were to make a successful claim.

A medical negligence compensation calculator takes into account two heads of claim: general and special damages. General damages is the head of claim that is awarded to every successful claimant, and it covers the harm you suffered as a result of medical negligence.

The medical negligence payout calculator below uses figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document is often used by different payout calculators, as well as professionals who value claims because it contains guidelines for general damages payout amounts.

Please note that the first entry in this table hasn’t been taken from the JCG and that these amounts are not guaranteed.

Injury	Compensation	Notes
Multiple Instances of Serious Harm Plus Financial Losses	Up to £1,000,000+	A combination of severe harm caused by medical negligence and financial losses, such as lost earnings.
Very Severe Brain Damage	£344,150 to £493,000	This bracket includes those who show little to not response to their surroundings, and need constant professional care.
Moderate Brain Damage (i)	£183,190 to £267,340	No prospect of employment with a risk of epilepsy and a moderate to severe intellectual deficit.
Established Grand Mal Epilepsy	£124,470 to £183,190	Consideration is given to the efficacy of medication and the effect on the claimant's daily life.
Total Blindness	In the region of £327,940	Total blindness.
Total Loss of Taste and Smell	In the region of £47,810	Total loss of smell and taste.
Lung Disease (a)	£122,850 to £165,860	Causing severe disability and premature death.
Injuries To The Digestive System (iii)	£4,820 to £11,640	An allergic reaction causing significant discomfort and stomach cramps.
Kidney Injuries a)	£206,730 to £256,780	Loss of or serious, permanent damage to both kidneys.
Total Incontinence	Up to £224,790	Double incontinence with other medical complications.

Our medical negligence compensation calculator also takes into account special damages. Under this heading, you can potentially claim back any of the financial losses that were caused by the harm you suffered.

For example, if your spinal fracture was misdiagnosed and this led to paralysis, special damages could potentially cover the cost of things like lost earnings, mobility aids, and home adjustments like widened doorways or the installation of a stairlift.

To claim under this heading, you need to provide evidence of your losses. These might include things like bank statements, receipts, or invoices.

Contact our team today to learn more about medical negligence compensation, or keep reading for more information on making a medical negligence claim.

What Is Medical Negligence?

When you seek medical attention from a medical professional, you have the right to receive a minimum standard of care. However, sometimes a medical professional can deviate from this standard of care, meaning that your health is negatively affected as a result. This is medical negligence.

It’s important to note that you can only claim where medical negligence has had a negative impact on your health. If a healthcare provider has administered the wrong standard of care, but this has not negatively affected your health, you would not be able to claim.

It’s also important to bear in mind that complications with medical care can arise even when a doctor is delivering the right standard of care to you. For example, you may have had a disease misdiagnosed because you were exhibiting atypical symptoms, meaning that it would not have been expected for your doctor to come to the correct diagnosis. This would not be an example of medical negligence.

The courts will often use something called the Bolam Test to determine whether or not the care you received was of the right standard. This is where a panel of peers (other healthcare providers in the relevant field) are asked to confirm whether or not the care administered was of an acceptable standard. If not, this would be an example of medical negligence.

For more information on what constitutes medical negligence, speak to one of the advisors on our claims team today. They can offer you free legal advice and may be able to connect you with a solicitor from our panel if you have a valid claim.

What Things Can You Claim For After Harm Caused By Medical Negligence?

When you make a claim for harm caused by medical negligence, your compensation could consist of two different “heads” of claim. These are known as general damages and special damages.

General damages compensate you for the physical and emotional pain caused by the injury. Special damages, on the other hand, compensate you for the financial impact that your injuries have had on you.

Under special damages, you can claim for costs and losses like:

Loss of earnings
Loss of future earnings
Travel costs
Prescriptions and medicine costs
Recreational activities that you’re now unable to attend.

Our compensation calculator for medical negligence takes into account general damages as well as any loss of earnings you’ve experienced. However, if you’d like a more accurate assessment of the value of your claim that takes into consideration some of the other special damages you could be entitled to, speak to one of our advisors today.

Common Types Of Medical Negligence

There are a number of different ways that a healthcare provider could act negligently, causing a negative effect on your health. We have covered some of these in more detail below.

Negligence In Prescriptions Or Medication

Part of the job of some medical practitioners is to prescribe medication. It’s really important that this is done correctly. If you’re prescribed the wrong medication or told to take the wrong dosage of the right medication, this could cause you to become ill.

Some examples of negligence in the prescription of medication could include:

A doctor failing to check your medical records, leading to them prescribing you a drug you are allergic to.
A spelling mistake means that you are given the wrong medication by the pharmacist.
While you’re prescribed the correct medication, you’re told to take the wrong dosage. This means that the medication is ineffective, and your condition gets worse than it otherwise would have.

Missed Diagnosis Of Cancer Or Other Condition

When you seek medical attention, it’s often best to get the treatment you need as soon as possible. However, this is dependent on your condition being correctly diagnosed. Some conditions, such as cancer, can become fatal if they’re not correctly diagnosed.

It’s important to reiterate that not every instance of misdiagnosis will be the result of negligence. For instance, you might seek medical attention but be exhibiting symptoms that are not typical of the condition you are suffering from. As a result, a medical expert may not be expected to diagnose your condition based on the information they have.

However, if you were exhibiting clear signs of a condition that was nevertheless missed and your health suffered as a result, you may be able to claim. Get in touch with an advisor on our team today for more information, or use our compensation calculator for medical negligence to see how much you could be owed.

Delayed Diagnosis Of An Illness Or Injury

In some ways, a delayed diagnosis can have similar health effects to a diagnosis that is missed altogether. This could be the case, particularly when discussing conditions that get worse over time. A delay in diagnosis could cause your condition to progress from a point where it’s responsive to treatment to a point where treatment is more difficult or even impossible.

Some examples of how a delay in diagnosis could negatively affect your health might include:

Cancer becoming fatal because negligence prevented a doctor from diagnosing it sooner
A negligent delay in diagnosing diabetes leads to the patient having their foot amputated
A broken foot is initially diagnosed as being sprained, meaning that there’s an increased risk of osteoarthritis from the bone beginning to heal in the wrong position.

GP Negligence

GPs are often one of the first places people go to when seeking medical attention. We often trust them to diagnose conditions, offer treatment and prescribe medication. Furthermore, GPs can refer people for more specialist treatment if necessary.

However, there are some instances where your GP could act negligently, causing you harm. This could include:

Your GP fails to listen to your symptoms, meaning that they don’t refer you to a specialist for further tests.
You’re referred to the wrong specialist because your GP didn’t pay proper attention to your symptoms. As a result, your treatment is delayed.

Surgical Negligence

When you undergo an operation, you trust that the surgeon operating on you will deliver the right standard of care. However, if they fail to do this, it could harm you or make your condition progress further than it would have if you had not been the victim of negligence.

Some examples of complications in surgery that could result from negligence include:

The wrong body part is operated on. This would mean that you have undergone unnecessary surgery on the incorrect body part and could result in your condition progressing until the right site is operated on. Furthermore, you could be left with an unnecessary scar injury. These kinds of incidents are known as Never Events, as they should be completely avoidable if all professional standards are adhered to.
A delayed surgery results in a patient’s condition worsening. For example, with appendicitis, if the appendix bursts due to a surgical delay, this could lead to further medical complications.
The correct level of anaesthetic is not administered to you while you’re undergoing an operation. Because of this, you wake up while being operated on, which causes you pain and psychological injuries.

Healthcare Acquired Infections

Hospital infections can be severely detrimental to patients’ health. While there are circumstances where patients can contract hospital infections despite medical standards being adhered to, there are some ways that an infection could be contracted because of negligence.

For example:

You contract an infection because the bed you’ve been given was not cleaned, and the bedding was not changed from the last patient, who had an infectious disease.
A doctor performs an examination on you without having changed their gloves from the previous patient. You contract an infection as a result.
Clear symptoms of a hospital infection are ignored in you. As a result, you don’t get the treatment you need, and the infection gets worse.

Childbirth Medical Negligence

When you’re giving birth, your doctor has a duty of care to both you and your baby. A breach of this duty of care could result in you or your baby being injured. In some cases, birth injuries sustained by newborn babies can have permanent negative effects on their health.

Examples of how injuries could be sustained in childbirth as a result of negligence include:

Your doctor fails to notice that your baby is in distress due to low oxygen when this would have been apparent had the right level of care been provided. Your baby suffers brain damage as a result.
Forceps are used when it’s not necessary, and as a result, your baby suffers a broken bone.
An epidural is performed incorrectly because of negligence, meaning that you don’t have the right level of anaesthetic. This causes you a great deal of unnecessary pain and suffering.

How Much Could I Expect To Claim For Medical Negligence?

The two potential heads of your claim will each be assessed individually. The value of the general damages you receive will be based on the results of a medical assessment that you attend as part of your claim. If you work with a solicitor from our panel, they may be able to arrange this for you in your local area to reduce travel time.

The result from this assessment will be valued with the help of a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines (JGC). These are compensation brackets based on previous awards that have been made.

In order to claim special damages, it’s important that you provide evidence. For example, you could provide receipts to show what you’ve spent on care costs or a payslip to demonstrate loss of earnings.

No Win No Fee Claim Agreements For Medical Negligence Claims

Our panel of solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis. This is a kind of agreement that can enable you to fund legal representation for your claim in an affordable way. It means that:

You won’t be asked to pay anything to your solicitor upfront or while your claim is ongoing.
In the event of an unsuccessful claim, you won’t be asked to pay anything to your solicitor at all.
If your claim is successful, then a small percentage of your compensation will be deducted. This is legally capped, ensuring that you aren’t overcharged.

If you’re interested in funding legal representation through a No Win No Fee agreement, speak to an advisor from our team today. You could be connected with a solicitor from our panel to work on your claim.

Get Free Legal Advice From Our Team

Our compensation calculator for medical negligence can provide you with an accurate estimate of the compensation you could receive. In addition to this, our advisors offer free legal advice that can help guide you and answer your questions. Furthermore, our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors could help you receive compensation for the harm you’ve experienced as a result of negligent medical treatment.

You can:

Call us on 0800 408 7826.
Use our live chat at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
Contact us through our website.

Ask Our Team To Calculate Your Medical Negligence Payout

If you want to use our compensation calculator for medical negligence but you’re unsure how to use it, don’t worry. A member of our team can talk you through the process of assessing the value of your claim over the phone.

We can also help if you’d like to know more about how much your claim could be worth but would rather speak with someone than use an online calculator. Our advisors can also help with free legal advice and answer any questions you might have about the claims process.

Resources And Related Case Studies

The General Medical Council outline their code of conduct.

The NHS Constitution sets out the standard of care you can expect from NHS healthcare providers in England.

Find out how to complain about an NHS service on their website.

If you’ve sustained a broken tooth because of dental negligence, you could claim. Find out more from reading our guide.

Other Personal Injury Claims Guides You Can Read

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We hope reading this guide on using a compensation calculator for medical negligence claims has been useful. If you would like to ask an advisor further questions about medical negligence claims then you can get in touch with us using the contact details in this guide.

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