Last Updated On 24th June 2025. Are you wondering how to make a complaint about medical negligence? If so, this guide could help. Medical professionals owe a duty of care to their patients. This means they need to provide care that meets the correct standard. If there is a failure to do so, medical negligence may have occurred. In these instances, you could make a complaint to the relevant regulatory body. We will explore the process you could follow as we move through our guide.
Additionally, we will explore when you could be eligible to make a medical negligence claim. It will discuss the criteria that need to be met in order to have valid grounds to seek compensation, the evidence that can be gathered to strengthen a potential claim, and the compensation that could potentially be awarded if a claim succeeds.
Our guide concludes with an overview of how our expert solicitors offer their services in a No Win No Fee capacity to help you pursue the compensation you deserve.
For more information or to see if you have grounds to claim, please contact an advisor using the contact details below:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804.
- Use our ‘contact us‘ form.
- Message an advisor through our live chat.
Browse Our Guide
- How To Make A Complaint About Medical Negligence
- Can I Take Legal Action For Medical Negligence?
- Will Making A Complaint Affect My Medical Negligence Claim?
- Examples Of Clinical And Medical Negligence
- How Much Compensation For Medical Negligence Could You Claim?
- Check If You Could Make A No Win No Fee Medical Negligence Claim
- Learn More About How To Make A Complaint About Medical Negligence
How To Make A Complaint About Medical Negligence
You may be wondering how to make a complaint about medical negligence. There are several regulatory bodies that you could contact. However, who you make your complaint to will depend on where you have experienced a substandard level of care. For example, you could submit a complaint to your GP surgery or the hospital in which you received poor care.
Examples of some of the parties where you could submit your complaint include:
- NHS Resolution – This is the body that provides expertise to the NHS on resolving concerns and disputes fairly.
- General Medical Council – The independent regulator for doctors in the UK. They can review any concern you bring forward and may investigate further if necessary.
- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman – They make final decisions on complaints that have been left unresolved by the NHS in England, and other public organisations in the UK.
We Can Help You With Your Complaint
If you are unsure of the process involved in making a complaint for poor medical service, please get in touch with our team.
An advisor can provide further guidance on the complaints procedure you can follow. Also, they can assess whether you are eligible to bring forward a claim for medical negligence. You can get in touch by calling the number above to learn more.
Can I Take Legal Action For Medical Negligence?
In order to be eligible to make a claim for medical negligence, you must ensure the following criteria have been met:
- A duty of care was owed – Medical professionals owe all of their patients a duty of care. This means they are expected to provide care that meets the correct standard.
- There was a breach of duty of care – If a medical professional provides you with care that falls below expectations, this would constitute a breach of duty.
- You experienced avoidable harm – The breach of duty needs to have caused you harm that could have otherwise been avoided.
How Long Do I Have To Make A Claim?
As well as meeting the criteria above, you must also begin your medical negligence claim within a certain time period. The Limitation Act 1980 states that you will generally have 3 years from the date of the medical negligence, or the date you became aware of it. However, there are exceptions to this time limit.
For more information on the eligibility criteria, including the time limit, for medical negligence claims, please speak with an advisor on the number above.
Will Making A Complaint Affect My Medical Negligence Claim?
No, making a complaint won’t affect your medical negligence claim as they are 2 separate processes. In fact, your medical negligence complaint can run concurrently alongside any claim you make for compensation. However, it can be beneficial for the complaint process to have already concluded by the time you decide to pursue compensation since its findings may be useful as evidence.
Even if you get an unsatisfactory response, your complaint can still be advantageous when building a case. In particular, it can create an effective narrative account detailing what you endured due to medical negligence, such as:
- Your appointment dates.
- Any notes you took down while attending your appointments.
- Correspondence relevant to your complaint, such as letters and emails.
- Documents showing treatments, diagnoses, and prescriptions.
- An overview of how your day-to-day life has been affected.
If you decide to work with a solicitor, they can use this kind of information as a starting point to help you develop a strong, evidence-based claim.
If you have any other questions concerning the claims process or how to make a complaint about medical negligence, please reach out to our 24/7 team of advisors. Whether you have a query like ‘Can I complain about medical negligence?’ or want to know about claiming compensation, you can get answers at a time that’s most convenient for you.
Examples Of Clinical And Medical Negligence
There are various types of medical negligence. We’ve provided you with some examples in this section. However, the list below is not exhaustive, and there are examples outside of these scenarios.
- Misdiagnosis – You may have visited the hospital with clear symptoms of a fractured ankle. However, the doctor misreads your scan and incorrectly diagnoses you with a sprain.
- Surgical errors – A surgeon may have operated on the wrong part of your body. For example, your right leg may have been amputated instead of your left.
- Prescription errors – You may be prescribed the wrong medication or dosage to treat your illness. Taking the wrong medication could cause a reaction with other medicine you’re taking, and the wrong dosage could cause your health to deteriorate.
You can call an advisor today to discuss your specific case. They can determine whether you have a valid claim for medical negligence. Additionally, they could help you understand the process of how to make a complaint about medical negligence.
How Much Compensation For Medical Negligence Could You Claim?
Settlements following a successful medical negligence claim can comprise 2 heads of claim. The first is known as general damages which compensates for the pain and suffering you’ve experienced due to medical negligence.
Medical evidence can be used, as well as a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), to help calculate the value of general damages. The JCG contains guideline compensation brackets, based on successful past court cases.
Examples Of General Damages
The table below contains some extracts from the JCG (with the exception of the top row). You should use the figures only as a guide because compensation is calculated on a case-by-case basis.
| Harm | Compensation |
|---|---|
| Multiple Forms of Very Severe Harm + Special Damages (e.g. Care Costs) | Up to £1,000,000 + |
| Moderately Severe Brain Damage | £267,340 to £344,150 |
| Moderate (i) Brain Damage | £183,190 to £267,340 |
| Kidney (a) | £206,730 to £256,780 |
| Kidney (c) | £37,550 to £54,760 |
| Bowels (b) | Up to £183,190 |
| Bowels (c) | In the region of £97,530 |
| Complete Loss of Bladder Function | Up to £171,680 |
| Seriously Impaired Bladder Control | £78,080 to £97,540 |
| Spleen (a) | £25,380 to £32,090 |
Special Damages For Clinical Negligence Claims
The other head of claim you could be awarded is special damages which compensate for the financial costs and losses caused by the harm you experienced. For example:
- Medical expenses, such as private treatments
- Loss of earnings
- Travel costs
- The cost of additional care at home
- Special equipment or home modifications to accommodate a disability or other condition
Get in touch today if you’d like to share your experience and get advice tailored to your specific circumstances. Our advisors are available 24/7, ensuring all queries get prompt answers.
Check If You Could Make A No Win No Fee Medical Negligence Claim
There are several benefits of working with a No Win No Fee solicitor. For example:
- Hands-on assistance with tasks such as gathering evidence.
- Being able to ask your lawyer to clarify certain parts of the claims process.
- Help valuing your claim.
Our solicitors operate under a kind of No Win No Fee arrangement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This helps you access their expertise and many services without paying any immediate or ongoing solicitor fees.
Your solicitor will take a success fee from your compensation if your claim wins as payment for their work. This is taken as a percentage, which has a legal cap. If the case fails, you’ll have no solicitor fees to pay at all.
Our advisors are here 24/7 to provide further guidance on how to make a complaint about medical negligence. They can also offer a free case assessment to see if you can pursue compensation for medical negligence. If you have an eligible claim, you can be put in touch with one of our specialist medical negligence solicitors. To get started, you can:
- Call us on 0800 073 8804.
- Use our ‘contact us‘ form.
- Message an advisor through our live chat.
Learn More About How To Make A Complaint About Medical Negligence
Other guides of ours:
- Read whether you could make a claim following delayed treatment.
- Learn about claiming for birth injuries.
- Find out about seeking compensation after a drug allergic reaction.
Information from other sources:
- General Medical Council – Good medical practice
- NHS Resolution – Claims management
- GOV.UK – NHS Constitution for England
Call our team if you have any other questions about how to make a complaint about medical negligence.
Written by Bibby
Edited by Mitchell
