GP negligence claims

A general practitioner or GP is a community-based doctor who advises and treats people for minor and chronic illnesses. GPs provide routine healthcare to their registered patients and are often the first doctor that patients consult when they have healthcare problems which need referral to hospital or to a specialist for treatment. GP healthcare is also known as primary care.

An important part of the GP’s role is recognising when a patient is experiencing symptoms or showing signs of a serious illness that cannot be treated by the GP. It is their responsibility to arrange for the patient to be seen by the right type of hospital doctor or surgeon, within the correct timescale for the injury – e.g. urgently or routinely – and to provide accurate information to the hospital specialist about why they think the patient needs their help. They may also refer the patient to a hospital for tests or investigations, such as x-rays or scans.

In emergency situations, a GP may call an ambulance to take the patient directly to hospital or tell the patient’s family to take them immediately to A&E. Where a GP sends a patient directly to hospital, they will often advise the hospital of their concerns about the patient’s health and the reason for emergency admission or treatment.

When a patient leaves hospital, the GP receives information from the hospital about the patient’s treatment and ongoing needs. They may be responsible for following up the patient, explaining test results to them, ordering future tests, or prescribing medicines. Even after a patient has been seen in hospital, the GP may need to refer the patient back to hospital if, in their professional opinion, the patient needs further specialist treatment.

General practitioners must ensure that the healthcare treatment, advice, and services they provide to their patients meet acceptable standards of care. They are also responsible for the actions of the practice staff they employ, such as nurses or nurse practitioners, locum doctors or receptionists.

When GP care fails to meet these standards and their negligent mistakes cause serious injury to a patient, the patient can claim compensation for their injury and its financial consequences via a GP negligence claim.

A patient may have a claim against a GP if they suffer avoidable serious injury which was caused by one or more of the following mistakes in their GP care:

• failing to examine a patient and note their medical history and symptoms;
• failing to consider their medical history or other conditions when making a diagnosis;
• delay or failure to recognise and act on red flag warning signs and symptoms;
• delay or failure to refer a patient to hospital or for specialist review, tests or treatment;
• failure to order necessary tests and investigations;
• communication, follow up and safety-netting advice errors;
• medication and prescribing errors;
• treatment errors.

Our medical negligence solicitors recover outstanding compensation settlements for clients who have suffered serious, permanent disability as a result of GP negligence. Our clients’ GP negligence claims often involve negligent treatment which has led to severe disability from the following conditions:

• cauda equina syndrome (CES) or spinal cord/nerve compression;
• infection, such as tuberculosis (TB), meningitis, sepsis, and encephalitis;
• diabetic complications, including foot problems leading to amputation;
• venous thromboembolism (VTE) and ischaemia;
• cancer;
• head or brain injury, brain haemorrhage and aneurysm;
• cardiac (heart) problems;
• fetal anti-convulsant syndrome (FACS) or valproate injury.

Most medical negligence claims against a GP are now defended or settled in the same way as NHS hospital negligence claims, by the NHS’s defence organisation, NHS Resolution.

NHS Resolution’s Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP) covers GPs for any compensation they are ordered to pay to an injured patient as settlement for a negligence claim. Medical negligence claims against anyone employed by the GP’s practice to provide NHS medical services are also covered under the CNSGP scheme and are defended in the same way by NHS Resolution.

Occasionally, a GP may be represented in a claim by their own defence organisation (claims insurer), such as when the claim arises from private (non-NHS) care.

Where more than one GP in the same practice was negligent, for example, where the patient saw several doctors about their symptoms before their medical condition was diagnosed, we identify and notify the defence organisation for each GP, to ensure that our client receives their full compensation. In all medical negligence cases, we investigate our clients’ medical care carefully and thoroughly and advise our clients about which doctor(s) or healthcare organisation(s) should be named as defendant(s) to provide the best possible outcome for their claim.