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Whether you have been injured or your condition made worse at an NHS run facility or a private clinic you can still make a claim for compensation. For such you need to show medical negligence, i.e. the doctor, nurse, dentist or other health care professional has done something that most other people in their position would not have done. The fact that treatment has failed or an operation has gone wrong does not necessarily imply clinical negligence. Some operations come with risks as do some medications. The only difference is that with claims against the National Health Service you may have to enter into a conditional fee arrangement with your solicitor (i.e. they take a cut of your compensation) or you may even have to pay the fees up front. This is only in extreme cases where the solicitor may feel that the case has a less than 51% chance of succeeding. Of course, there are many firms across the UK that will offer you a no win, no fee agreement no matter what the case or the details. Despite the fact that medical negligence claims are notoriously harder to win as opposed to road accidents or accidents at work there are many legal firms that actually specialise in these types of litigation. We are not generally ones to give hard advice on this site but I feel confident saying to you "shop around" when it comes to clinical negligence claims. If you don't feel that the person you are speaking to has a good background in your type of case then move on to someone else. We have created a dedicated site on medical negligence listing specialists in this area. What should I do if I think/know something has gone wrong? Of course, if you are feeling unwell getting treatment is of the highest importance! Trying to speak to a solicitor about it before going to hospital is just dangerous, don't fear conspiracy theories about cover-ups - your original AND secondary treatment will be documented. As far as we know, there is no secret room of people deleting incriminating records at the NHS ... of course if you have already had the condition corrected or the mistake is not affecting you anymore then speak to a solicitor as soon as possible. Normally they will advise you to make an official complaint if you haven't already done so before even starting a claim, but they will be in the best position to advise you on the steps you need to take including where to go to deal with the problem that has arisen. What if I wasn't actually injured? We get asked this question a lot. The number of "near misses" we hear about week after week is scary to say the least. Errors in prescriptions, scheduled for surgery on the wrong limb (yes, it happens), all of which corrected at the last minute when someone finally notices is traumatic for sure, but at this time there is no system to seek compensation for such. You can make an official complaint but that is all.
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