Has your Doctor made a Misdiagnosis?

Can I claim doctor misdiagnosis compensation for a failure to diagnose pneumonia? I was hospitalised for 3 weeks with pneumonia which my doctor diagnosed as a heavy cold.

A claim for doctor misdiagnosis compensation can be made in the UK when a doctor has made an error in judgement which has caused a patient to come to harm as a direct result. However, an error in diagnosis must be deemed to be unreasonable under the circumstances, and that any competent doctor would have been able to correctly diagnose the condition or at least should have arranged further tests to be completed to allow a correct diagnosis to be made. When a doctor has not taken an appropriate course of action, and has failed in a duty of care to a patient, this is considered to be medical negligence and you are entitled to claim compensation for doctor misdiagnosis.

A failure to diagnose pneumonia is a serious error of judgement, but whether this amounts to medical negligence will depend upon the symptoms you had and described when you visited your doctor, and whether any doctor would have been expected to diagnose pneumonia under the circumstances. Pneumonia is a highly serious infection, and is one which doctors must be particularly attentive to. However, since colds and influenza can cause very similar symptoms a misdiagnosis may easily occur.

However, there are differences between these conditions which an attentive doctor should be able to spot, and these should raise concern and result in a doctor ordering a blood test or chest x-ray to confirm a diagnosis. Treatment of pneumonia is highly effective in the early stages, but when it is misdiagnosed and is allowed to progress, the condition can cause serious injury and may be fatal. 

Your claim for doctor misdiagnosis compensation may depend on the time between the initial misdiagnosis, and when and how you had the condition confirmed. If you returned to the same doctor the next day, and tests were arranged and your pneumonia was confirmed, the defence could argue that your condition had not deteriorated significantly in that time frame. If treatment would not have been any more effective had it had been started earlier or, if ‘on the balance of probabilities’ you would still have been hospitalised, a compensation claim for doctor misdiagnosis would be unlikely to be successful.

Doctor misdiagnosis compensation claims often depend on these factors, which is why it is vital that your case is assessed by a medical negligence solicitor. A solicitor would be able to advise you if your case involved medical negligence, and if doctor misdiagnosis compensation can be claimed.