Doctor Negligence
An Introduction To Doctor Negligence
It is a well known fact that doctors perform a vast amount of surgeries every day across South Africa. Unfortunately, surgical accidents due to doctor negligence occur far more often than many people realise.
Doctor negligence may occur as a result of the lack of healthcare that has been provided by the doctor and it can take on several forms. One way doctor negligence can occur is for the doctor to perform a faulty surgery. The faulty surgery that results is by no fault of your own, but you are the one that must live with the results of this negligence.
When you receive treatment or advice from a doctor, you must be certain that you are advised about the risks that are associated with your medical treatment and of all the possible outcomes of your medical treatments so you are educated on everything related to your outcome. Based on this information it should make you aware of what is not supposed to happen and you may decipher intelligently what is considered doctor negligence.
As a patient it would be beneficial to ensure that you are aware of a circumstance where your doctor or health care provider may have made a bad choice in treating you, causing you further injury due to doctor negligence.
The following are examples of treatments that may be considered doctor negligence depending on the case specifics:
- Failing to perform surgery with reasonable care and skill
- Failing to report correctly on test results
- Failing to provide post-operative care with reasonable care and skill
- Failing to diagnose a condition correctly
- Failing to provide the best suited treatment for the condition
- Failing to refer to a specialist if necessary
If you have been a victim of doctor negligence, don’t hesitate to contact us for expert legal advice on your situation.
For more information on this subject, please give us a call at 012 460 3668 (SA) or e-mail us at clare@avdw.co.za
