Emergency medicine
State based laws in Queensland and NSW prohibit the
publication of information on some of our areas of practice.
The information on this site is for Victorian or ACT users.
If you are in Queensland or NSW please refer to the relevant links
on this page to direct you to the appropriate information.
Claims arising from negligent emergency treatment are almost
always against hospitals rather than individual doctors.
Medical negligence / malpractice claims arising from emergency
treatment failures include:
- errors by ambulance officers
- improper triage (prioritisation of patients)
- failure to diagnose meningitis
- failure to diagnose and treat cerebral haemorrhage or
aneurysm
- failure to diagnose and treat heart attack
- failure to diagnose and treat compartment syndrome
- lumbar puncture in the presence of raised intra-cranial
pressure
- failure to detect and properly set fractures
- failure to properly clean and dress wounds
- failure to diagnose and treat severed or damaged nerves,
and
- failure to perform or adequately interpret diagnostic tests
(for example blood tests, urine analysis, x-rays, CT and MRI
scans).
Summary of emergency
medicine cases
FAQ about emergency medicine
How do I make a claim?
If you think you have a medical negligence claim, contact the
Maurice Blackburn Medical Negligence team. We will take a statement
from you about what has occurred and then provide you with a
preliminary assessment. If we believe you should proceed further
with your claim, we will then carry out an investigation of your
case. An investigation will involve obtaining your medical records
and reports from your treating doctors, if appropriate, then
obtaining an independent medical expert's opinion.
How much will it cost?
In medical negligence cases that we believe have merit, we will
conduct the investigation on a 'no-win, no-charge' basis. This
means you will only be charged profit costs in the event you
receive an award of damages and no profit costs will be charged if
the claim is not pursued after being investigated.
If proceedings are issued after investigating the claim and the
claim is successful, you will be charged for the costs of the
investigation and the legal work performed after issuing
proceedings. This will be a charge on the appropriate Court Scale,
and you will be given more information about this at the time when
the decision is made to issue proceedings. No costs are charged
unless you receive a settlement or award of compensation.
However, in medical negligence cases, we require you to pay for
the costs of the investigations, such as the fees charged by
doctors for providing us with medical reports or by hospitals for
providing us with medical records. We have to obtain these reports
and records before we can advise you whether you are likely to be
successful with your medical negligence case.
If, after carrying out the investigation, we believe that you
should proceed with a claim, then we can offer you various remedies
for obtaining compensation. If the medical treatment has resulted
in an unexpected death, then we may recommend that a report be made
to the Coroner's Court. Sometimes we also advise that a report
should be made to the Health Care Complaints Commission of New
South Wales, the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria or the
Health Rights Commission of Queensland.
How long do I have to make a
claim?
There are time limits for making a compensation claim. The time
limits and pre-litigation requirements vary between States and
Territories;
Australian Capital Territory
In the ACT pre-court procedures require a claimant to notify a
potential defendant of a possible claim within the earlier
of nine months of the incident or appearance of symptoms
or four months of instructing a lawyer regarding a possible
claim and the defendant being identified. Generally, a
person has three years from the time of the injury occuring or if
the injury is a disease or disorder three years before the day you
first knew that you suffered an injury that is a disease or
disorder and that the injury is related to someone else's act or
omissions, to bring a claim. If they are a child, there
is provision to extend the time to bring a claim if it involves a
disease or disorder. If Court proceedings are not
commenced within within the relevant time period you may be
prevented from ever bringing a claim. Legal advice is
therefore essential.
Victoria
In Victoria an adult has three years from the time of
injury or medical negligence was (discoverable) to issue
proceedings. Children have six years from the time of injury
or medical negligence was discoverable to ssue proceedings. The
concept of (discoverability) is yet to be fully defined by the
Courts and accordingly it is prudent to be conservative when
judging the date of discoverability to have occurred, for example
where the negligent treatment involves an injury as a result of
surgery undertaken in a negligent fashion, a conservative
assessment as to the date of injury would be the date the surgery
was undertaken, even where the negligence was not discovered by the
Claimant until some time thereafter. There may be circumstances
where you can apply to Court for an extension of time past these
time limits. The position will vary from case-to-case and you
should obtain legal advice about the time limits in your case.