Can healthcare personnel be sued directly?
As a general rule, anyone who sustains a treatment injury will apply for compensation via NPE. In rare cases, we find that people sue healthcare personnel directly. The law makes some allowances for this.
Our experience is that very few compensation claimants sue healthcare personnel directly. Such claims will be administered by the courts. Such legal action is assumed to be used predominantly in cases where the compensation claimant is seeking compensation for non-pecuniary damage, as this is not covered by NPE.
Public health service
Compensation claimants in patient injury cases cannot sue public bodies or healthcare trusts but they may sue the individual healthcare personnel.
Private health service
In the private health service, the compensation claimant can choose whether to sue both the healthcare personnel and the enterprise or just one of these.
Administration of claims made against healthcare personnel
General law of damages shall apply if a compensation claimant chooses to sue healthcare personnel directly. This means that the healthcare personnel must have acted negligently in order for the compensation claimant to be entitled to compensation. It would then take more for the compensation claimant to be successful with their claim.
Claims raised against healthcare personnel
We are responsible for paying compensation in cases that could have been reported under the Patient Injury Act. If a claim is raised directly against you, please contact us for advice.