An estimated 140,000 cases of diagnostic errors happen in Australia every year. The reality is that medicine is a complex field and people who work in healthcare are still humans that can make mistakes. If you’ve walked out of a doctor’s appointment feeling like your symptoms were dismissed or a test wasn’t ordered on time, it makes sense to ask yourself whether you’re experiencing poor treatment or even medical negligence.
What is delayed diagnosis?
Delayed diagnosis happens when your medical condition is identified much later than it should have been based on a reasonable standard of care. This delay can cause your condition to worsen which can make treatment much more difficult.
Delayed diagnosis doesn’t always mean negligence
The law doesn't say a doctor has to get it right every time. What it says is that a doctor has to meet the standard of care that a competent professional in their position would have provided. Rather than just asking, "was the diagnosis late?" it’s actually, “would another doctor in the same situation have acted sooner?"
The legal question is whether that delay, and its cause, fell below what a reasonable hospital and healthcare system should have provided, and whether that failure is what allowed the cancer to reach a terminal stage.
What evidence do I need to prove a delayed diagnosis claim?
The medical records are your starting point. You're legally entitled to request them from every provider involved. When pursuing a delayed diagnosis claim, you’ll need to provide your complete medical records, an independent expert medical opinion from a specialist, evidence of causation, and documentation of the real harm you’ve experience like loss of income.
For a delayed diagnosis to be considered medical negligence in Australia, 4 things need to be established:
- A duty of care existed
- That duty was breached
- The breach caused your harm
- You suffered real, measurable damage as a result.
Medical negligence means something went wrong because of a failure to meet the standard of care, and that failure caused the harm. Medical treatment can be complex, and some cancers are difficult to catch early even if your doctor’s been thorough. A doctor can do everything correctly and a patient can still have a poor outcome. Negligence requires that a competent peer in the same position and with the same information would have done something different, and that difference would have changed your outcome.
Medical negligence means something went wrong because of a failure to meet the standard of care, and that failure caused the harm. Medical treatment can be complex, and some cancers are difficult to catch early even if your doctor’s been thorough. A doctor can do everything correctly and a patient can still have a poor outcome. Negligence requires that a competent peer in the same position and with the same information would have done something different, and that difference would have changed your outcome.
We are the original No Win, No Fee* Medical negligence lawyers
This means that if you don’t win, you don’t pay the fees for the work we do on your case.
The contents of this blog post are considered accurate as at the date of publication. However the applicable laws may be subject to change, thereby affecting the accuracy of the article. The information contained in this blog post is of a general nature only and is not specific to anyone’s personal circumstances. Please seek legal advice before acting on any of the information contained in this post.