Hospital Negligence Claims — Compensation
Last reviewed: June 2026 · EA Personal Injury Solicitors
Hospitals — whether NHS or private — are responsible for ensuring that the care provided to patients meets accepted clinical standards. Where hospital treatment falls below that standard and causes avoidable harm, EA Personal Injury Solicitors can help you pursue a compensation claim on a no win, no fee basis.
TL;DR — Quick Summary
Key Points
- NHS trusts are vicariously liable for the negligence of employed staff
- Hospital errors include surgical mistakes, medication errors, infections and failure to treat urgently
- Both physical and psychological harm caused by hospital negligence are claimable
- Three-year limitation period from date of treatment or knowledge
- No win, no fee — if the claim succeeds, a success fee may be deducted from your compensation
Hospital Negligence and Your Rights
Hospitals bring together large teams of clinical and non-clinical staff, complex equipment and vulnerable patients. The potential for harm when systems fail, standards slip or individuals make errors is significant. Hospitals — both NHS and private — have a duty of care to every patient they treat, and where that duty is breached in a way that causes avoidable harm, a compensation claim may be possible.
For NHS hospitals, the legal claim is typically brought against the NHS trust (the employing organisation), which is vicariously liable for the negligence of its staff. The trust's indemnity is held by NHS Resolution. For private hospitals, the position can be more complex — some clinicians practise as independent contractors and the hospital's own liability depends on the specific employment arrangements.
Common Types of Hospital Negligence
- Surgical errors — wrong-site surgery, intraoperative complications due to negligence, retained foreign bodies (swabs, instruments)
- Anaesthetic errors — overdose, awareness during surgery, failure to monitor adequately
- Failure to diagnose or treat urgently — delays in recognising and treating sepsis, stroke, acute coronary syndrome, compartment syndrome
- Hospital-acquired infections — where inadequate infection control contributed to MRSA, C. difficile or other avoidable infections
- Pressure sores — avoidable development of Grade 3 or 4 pressure ulcers in inpatients
- Medication errors — wrong drug, wrong dose, failure to check for contraindications or allergies
- Post-operative care failures — inadequate monitoring and failure to respond to deteriorating observations
- Failure to obtain informed consent — not disclosing material risks the patient would have wanted to know about
Informed Consent in Hospital Settings
Since the Supreme Court's judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015], hospitals and clinicians must take reasonable care to ensure patients are aware of any material risks involved in a proposed treatment, as well as reasonable alternatives. A risk is material if a reasonable person in the patient's position would be likely to attach significance to it, or if the clinician knows the particular patient would. Failure to obtain proper informed consent — where the patient would have refused or chosen an alternative had they been properly informed — can itself give rise to a negligence claim.
Evidence in Hospital Negligence Claims
Hospital records — including nursing notes, medication charts, observation records, operation notes, anaesthetic records, laboratory results and imaging — are central to every hospital negligence claim. We obtain these through Subject Access Requests and use them to brief independent expert witnesses who provide opinions on breach of duty and causation.
No Win, No Fee Hospital Negligence Claims
We act under a Conditional Fee Agreement. If the claim fails, you pay nothing. If the claim succeeds, a success fee may be deducted from your compensation.