Welcome to our site

The purpose of this website is to:

• provide legal information and current affairs news on Australian health and medical negligence law.

• provide an obligation-free referral service for patients/victims of medical negligence wanting legal advice about their legal rights.

• provide a directory of support services including listings of mental health professionals with experience in counselling victims of medical negligence.

 FOR PATIENTS & THEIR FAMILIES:

We are offering an obligation-free legal referral service which provides patients and their families access to solicitors/lawyers with expertise and extensive experience in Australian health and medical law, medical negligence, personal injury and compensation.

Our solicitors can provide you with OBLIGATION-FREE LEGAL ADVICE.

If you would also like legal representation, our lawyers may be able to offer you a
NO WIN NO PAY agreement.

Just complete the Contact Form on the right of this page, and a lawyer will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

BREAKING NEWS:

S.A: Adelaide doctor jailed for taking intimate photographs of female patients for his own sexual gratification

Dr Gurmit Singh Dhillon is serving a two year jail sentence, with a non-parole period of 14 months, after pleading guilty last year to 15 charges of indecent behaviour and a further 2 counts of indecent assault.

The Medical Board of South Australia has gone to the Medical Professional Conduct Tribunal asking that he be struck off the register of medical practitioners for 8 years for his behaviour. The hearing continues. Source: AdelaideNow, news.com.au 06.05.08.

VIC: Dermatologist / Cosmetic Surgeon fronts Medical Board

An Armadale dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon is currently before the Medical Board, accused of the following: performing inappropriate procedures on 6 patients; repaying a dissatisfied patient $3300 on the condition the patient not complain; asking staff to clean a device containing needles for re-use after it had been used on a patient with hepatitis B. The hearing continues. Source: news.com.au 15.04.08.

NSW: Hospital staff under scrutiny for alleged misdiagnosis

Carol Willesee, accomplished stage actress died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in 2006. According to her daughters, the family became increasingly distressed during their mother's one month stay at Nepean Hospital because they felt ignored by medical staff who did not speak to them at all about what their mother might be suffering from or what tests they were organising. It is alleged by the family that Carol was not diagnosed with CJD until 23 days after her admission. Source: news.com.au 15.04.08.

Dob In a Doctor: NSW Doctors will be legally required to report misconduct

Additions to the Medical Practice Amendment Bill will be tabled in parliament at the next sitting in early May. The three areas of mandatory reporting will be sexual abuse in the practice of medicine, drug or alcohol intoxication whilst working, and engaging in conduct which may harm another person. Source: news.com.au 13.04.08.

Kylie Minogue's Breast Cancer Misdiagnosed

Kylie Minogue has revealed on US television that a doctor failed to diagnose her with breast cancer, claiming she was "fine." She said: “My message to all of you, and everyone at home is, because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they are right.” It is unclear whether the misdiagnosis took place in Australia or overseas. Source: news.com.au.

QLD- Alleged misdiagnosis

GP Dr Michael Tait is under investigation over allegations he diagnosed a woman as a hypochondriac even though she was later diagnosed with multiple tumours including a 7.5cm-wide benign brain tumour and seven breast tumours. Dr Tait is also now facing deregistration by the Medical Board. Source: news.com.au 29.03.08.

VICTORIA- Specialist doctor jailed for sexual assault of 14 patients.

14.03.08: A Melbourne dermatologist has been jailed for rape and indecent assault. Read more....

QLD and NSW Medical Boards have suspended Dr Roman Hasil

A report by New Zealand authorities alleged the obstetrician and gynaecologist botched sterilisation operations, drank alcohol while on call, and failed to keep proper records. Source: abc.net.au 28.02.07.

NSW: DR REEVES- Struck-off Gynaecologist damaged patient's genitals.

Dr Graeme Reeves, dubbed "the Butcher of Bega" allegedly  botched numerous operations on his female patients. The worse part  is that in July 1997, Dr Reeves was ordered by the NSW Medical Board to stop practising as an obstetrician because of his unsatisfactory professional conduct, and yet the Southern Area Health Service appointed him as a Visiting Medical Officer in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2002. Where was the check of his employment history, his referees and his record by the area health service and the Government? Dr Reeves' Medical Board case can be read here : (See case). His conduct has also been the subject of discussion in Parliament (See Hansard).; "On reviewing her case a gynaecological oncologist said that the surgery performed on Mrs C had been out of favour for 30 years due to the significant level of deformity that it causes and the large amount of normal skin removed," A Constance, Hansard 26.09.07. Read more about Dr Graham Reeves here.

QLD: Dr Jayant Patel ("Dr Death") : extradition from the U.S

Report shows Australian public hospital bungles are killing scores of people

Read more about medical errors in Australia and the AIHW report here.

Patient safety expert Stephen Bolsin said little had improved in the past decade.

"Safety breaches in Australian healthcare are killing more people than breast cancer or road accidents," Associate Professor Bolsin said. (Source: SMH 11.07.07)

Public Hospitals are at their Worse. What is being done to fix the system?

Record number of medication errors in hospital

MEDICATION errors at Royal Melbourne Hospital have doubled in the past four years. Melbourne Health, which runs the hospital, recorded 1217 medication errors in 2005-06 compared with just 503 in 2002-03. READ MORE...

Harmed in NSW hospitals: 500 errors a record

ALMOST 500 medical errors in NSW public hospitals either seriously harmed patients or could have done so in 2005-06 - the highest number in the three years the statistics have been collected.

A report by the Clinical Excellence Commission found policies and procedures were to blame for a quarter of the errors and near misses. These included inadequate training requirements for some staff. Another quarter were attributable to communication problems, particularly when patient care was handed over to a different medical team or between shifts.

Incompetence or outdated skills were behind almost 100 cases, and inadequate ratios of medical staff to patients, or rostering of junior doctors into senior roles, was at the heart of about 70 of the problems. Equipment failure was much less common.

Serious incidents in NSW:

- Delayed or wrong treatment or diagnosis: 178

- Suicide outside hospital: 137

- Birth problems: 37

- Wrong operation: 36

- Falls: 30

For further info:  Sydney Morning Herald 21.12.06;  Clinical Excellence Commission

The Law of Medical Negligence:

Understanding your rights

If you or your child have been injured by medical treatment, or if you are the dependant of a patient who died as a result of medical treatment, you may be entitled to compensation.

Civil legal proceedings in Court for compensation arising from the circumstances of the adverse medical event, usually involve the claimant or "plaintiff" seeking to prove the tort of Negligence before the Court.

The cause of action in negligence usually arises in one or more of the following situations:

Treatment

Examples:

• failing to perform surgery with reasonable care and skill;
• failing to provide post-operative care with reasonable care and skill;
• failing to provide the appropriate referral for the condition;
• failing to appropriately treat a condition.

Diagnosis

Examples:

• failing to diagnose a condition;
• delay in diagnosis of a condition resulting in a poor outcome;
• misdiagnosis;
• failing to report correctly on test results.

Provision of Information/Advice

Examples:

• failing to warn of risks associated with a procedure or treatment;
• failing to advise of alternative treatments and/or procedures.

All 3 of the following elements must be proven to establish a case of negligence:

1. The doctor owed the patient a duty of care;

2. The doctor breached that duty of care by some act or omission;

3. This act or omission has caused the patient physical and/or financial harm.

Just because harm or injury has occurred in the course of medical treatment, does not mean that the doctor has been negligent. Negligence is a question of law. The main question to be asked is whether the act or omission by the doctor was reasonable in the circumstances of the case.

Expert evidence from a medical practitioner is usually required to establish whether there was a failure on the part of the treatment provider(s) to exercise reasonable and care and skill in the circumstances and to identify any damage that has been caused by such poor treatment and care. 

If you were treated as a private patient,  you may have an additional claim for breach of contract if your medical treatment is substandard.

Examples of Medical Negligence

Personal injuries (including physical damage, psychological damage, death) can occur in all medical specialties.

Additionally, medical negligence claims are not limited to law suits against medical practitioners; claims can also be brought against other health professionals such as dentists, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists etc.

Specific examples include the following:

Seeking legal advice

Medical  negligence is a highly specialised field. It has legal principles and rules of procedure which differ from those covering other areas of the law.

When seeking legal advice you must ask yourself:   What do I really want?

• Do I want an investigation? An apology?
• Do I want my complaint noted so as to prevent similar accidents?

You could instruct a solicitor to act for you in making a complaint only. Complaints are best dealt with by bodies such as the Health Care Complaints Commission. But if your need is financial compensation you must see an experienced medical negligence solicitor as soon as possible.

TIME LIMITS APPLY!!

WHY USE OUR SERVICE?

Finding a competent and experienced medical negligence lawyer can be very difficult. If you contact the Law Society for a referral, they will usually give you the names of ANY solicitors in your area. They can also provide you the names of accredited personal injury solicitors near you.

However, we have found that just because a solicitor is accredited, does not necessarily make them a good solicitor. It's the same with doctors... just because they have a university degree and specialist qualifications, it doesn't make them competent or a good doctor.

What is more disturbing is the fact that some solicitors advertise themselves as medical negligence lawyers, when they in fact have little or no experience in the area, or they do have experience but they have only ever represented defendants (i.e doctors and hospitals) and not plaintiffs (patients).

Through trial and error, by speaking with patients, lawyers, barristers, we have attempted to locate excellent medical negligence lawyers with solid reputations as experts in their particular fields. It is through feedback to this website that we are able to assess the quality of the solicitors we refer to. Moreover we only refer to plaintiff lawyers with a genuine interest in patient's rights.

And the best part is that this referral service is free for patients and their families with genuine claims.

* IMPORTANT NOTICE:  The information contained in this website is not intended to be an advertisement for personal injury legal services in NSW and QLD. There are laws which prohibit advertising of personal injury legal services in these States. Where a case may involve a personal injury compensation claim in NSW or QLD, our referral service WILL NOT be able to assist you i.e we are not allowed to refer you to a solicitor. We regret that we are unable to assist NSW and QLD citizens in such circumstances- but that is the law.