What To Know About Medical Misdiagnosis Claims

Health is everyone’s most important asset and it needs to be looked after at all costs. It is the duty of a professional to diagnose the medical condition of the patient accurately and provide appropriate treatment in accordance with general approved practice for that condition. However, due to medical negligence and misdiagnosis, it is estimated there are nearly 1000 deaths in Ireland. The cases recorded from surgery are about 36%, medicine is about 24%, maternity and gynaecology are about 23% and 7.5%, respectively. 

Professionals who carry out medical diagnoses

Medicine is a vast field that consists of several specialisations. Each specialisation needs to have qualified professionals to be able to understand the diagnosis and help the patient and their close members to understand the detailed information regarding the same.

Healthcare professionals who engage in the work of diagnosis include,

• Nurses
• General practitioners
• Consultants
• Emergency medical physicians
• Dentists
• Dieticians
• Physical therapists 
• Speech and language therapists
• Psychologists 
• Psychiatrists and more.

Medical misdiagnosis and its types

There are three types of misdiagnosis in the medical field that lead to medical misdiagnosis claims, and they are as follows:

• Unsuccessful diagnosis

This type of misdiagnosis happens when the practitioner has failed to spot the signs relating to an illness or disease, resulting in the problem being completely undiagnosed. This fault may deteriorate the health of the patient due to no diagnosis or even lead to death if the health condition is serious.

• Delayed diagnosis

The delaying of a diagnosis, be it any kind of condition and its nature, can lead to persistent or permanent psychological or physical damage. For example, if a patient is suffering from cancer, the delay in diagnosis might lead to a difference between curative treatment and palliative treatment.

• Incorrect diagnosis

If a diagnosis is incorrect, the patient might have to go through tests and examinations that are unnecessary. This may lead to receiving a treatment that is not required at all, and the existing condition will remain untreated. Along with this, the unrequired treatment provided may cause side-effects to the patients’ bodies, damage the body more or cause other health complications.

Can I Bring a Medical Misdiagnosis Claim?

To bring a successful claim for medical misdiagnosis, it will be necessary to provide evidence that:

1.  the medical care treatment was below the general approved standard; and
2.  that the negligence  caused you damage or injury.

Talk to Tallans 

Contact us to discuss your case with  experienced medical negligence litigators