Patients' Rights - Part 2

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Important evidence for the victim

A patient who claims to have been injured as a result of medical malpractice should proceed to collect all medical records. To prove the malpractice, it is valid that the patient should collect all documentations. If you have a suspicion that the doctor made a mistake during the treatment, before acquiring any help, the hospital should provide full medical records. In Britain there are many institutions that deal with the patients that are in any way harmed by medical malpractice.

Full medical records

First of all, the victim must obtain documentation from the facility, which made the mistake in the first place, in accordance ot the patient. You cannot base anything simply on the basic information packs. The victim should have full documentation, and not just the fragmentary portion. In addition, the patient should gather documents from the places where the patient was treated after the incident. It is on the basis of these documents that the the judgement will be made, defining how the overall life and health of the patient was affected.

What documents are specifically considered as the medical records designed to assess whether the treatment has been fulfilled with full care? You could point out the: medical history, the test results, medical observations, medical card orders, a description and report of the operation. Of course, various medical malpractices significantly differ from each other and to prove them, specific documentation will certainly be required. For example, you can indicate medical malpractices during birth – in this case, a printed out CTG is necessary.

All documents received by the patient should be certified for compatibility with the original document. The patient and any authorised person has the right to access health status and obtain photocopied medical records. The power of attorney may be granted a medical negligence lawyers by the victim at any time.

It should be noted that doctors have a duty to diligently carry out the medical records and the medical GPs should make them available for every patient. 

A misdiagnosis

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A diagnostic error is quite common when it comes to medical profession, it involves a doctor providing a patient a wrong judgement and thus a false diagnosis. A special medical negligence lawyers should be the one who decides whether the misjudgement should be classed as a professional mistake. Unfortunately only a skilled person with special expertise is able to assess whether the specific doctor’s mistake was wrong, according to the rules and procedure applicable with the medical profession. More importantly they decide what effect this misjudgement had on the patient, and whether this will or already has had an impact upon the overall health of the patient. The responsibility of the doctor will be ignored if the doctor was either constrained with limited medical knowledge or if he/she nevertheless tried to provide as much care as possible. In such situations, even a complete misdiagnosis cannot depend fully on the medical liability.

Bear in mind that only the intentional misleading of conduct can lead to a doctor being accused of medical malpractice allegations. More importantly, the doctor has an obligation to always act with care towards every patient, according to the principles of medical knowledge. However there is no obligatory rules that state that the patient should be fully healed, instead a doctor should do anything possible, in order to support those who require the help. The inappropriate performance and attitudes of a doctor may therefore result from disobeying or ignoring vital procedures, for example, performing a necessary diagnosis research, carrying out crucial and frequent one to one visits with the patient, and lastly lacking the verified test results.

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