Military Medical Negligence Claims

FAQs

• What responsibilities do the MOD have?

  Military medics not only have a duty of care towards those with specific health problems, they also have an obligation to ensure that personnel are fit for the duties they are assigned by their chain of command.

  For example, a medical officer or military psychiatric nurse who ought to realise that a soldier is suffering from PTSD should think not only of treatment for the condition, but also of medical grading and whether procedures need to begin to prevent the patient’s deployment.

  A failure here can result in a service man or woman being sent into combat, with the result that their condition deteriorates to the point that medical discharge is necessary. Here, the duty of care has been breached.

• What sort of failures can lead to a claim?

  Failures in care can happen if an individual medical practitioner makes a mistake or there is a fault in the system. This can lead to the wrong treatment being given to a service man or woman, the right treatment being denied, or it being delayed for so long that injury occurs or a career is lost.

  In addition, because service personnel are exposed to unusual conditions, military medics have a duty to be on the alert for unusual conditions such as PTSD, compartment syndrome or cold and heat injuries.

  Of course, service men and women are also susceptible to the same diseases as civilians, such as cancer – and these can be misdiagnosed by military medics. Each military medical negligence case is unique because the severity of the issues will differ on a case-by-case basis.

• Why should I instruct a specialist military claims team?

  Military doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals are working according to procedures and following rules that are, in many ways, very different to those in the NHS or a private clinic.

  Even a lawyer who is an expert in civilian clinical negligence work may not have the experience of the military health system that will allow him or her to deal effectively with a claim involving the treatment of a training injury by a Senior Medical Officer, for example.

  We have years of experience in working with service personnel with military medical negligence claims, and have a wealth of knowledge of this very unusual area.

  We are also fully aware of how complex and valuable military careers and pensions can be − both before and after discharge from the services. What could appear to be a relatively minor injury in a civilian context can often, if the victim is in the services, have catastrophic financial consequences which are not immediately apparently to the non-specialist.