Updated on 08/10/2025. Surgical negligence can be devastating because the patient can experience physical complications, ongoing pain, severe emotional distress and even death. Not to mention the financial strain an individual can experience due to additional medical care and corrective procedures. If you have suffered harm and your surgeon was at fault, we encourage you to look into your eligibility in relation to surgery negligence claims.
Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we’re here to help you. By calling our advisors today, you will get immediate access to a free consultation, which will determine whether you are eligible to claim surgery negligence compensation. If you are eligible to claim, we will connect you with one of our solicitors who is an expert in the field of surgery compensation claims. Notably, they will provide their legal services on a No Win No Fee basis.
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Your Important Questions Answered
- What can go wrong during surgery? Things can go wrong in several categories, ranging from operating on the wrong body part to anaesthesia errors.
- What type of harm can a patient experience? A patient can experience multiple forms of harm, including but not limited to nerve damage and life-threatening infections.
- How can surgical errors be prevented? Surgical errors can be prevented in numerous ways, including utilising site marking, clear communication protocols and using safety checklists.
- Can I claim without professional legal help? Yes, you can, but it’s not recommended as the likelihood of you securing the highest possible compensation award is low without the help of a legal professional.
- How much compensation? The severity of the harm determines your surgery negligence compensation and whether you have incurred financial losses.
What Is A Surgical Error?
The term ‘surgical error’ can be used to describe the following:
- Procedures carried out in the wrong area of the body (wrong site surgery).
- Correct procedures carried out on the wrong patient.
- Incorrect dosages of anaesthesia or painkillers and other medication errors.
- When surgical instruments, such as swaps, sponges or small tools, are left inside the patient.
- Defective medical implants or devices, like knee replacement surgery errors.
- Nerve damage caused by a mistake or an error during surgery.
- Post-operative infections caused by poor dressing or lack of general hygiene in the area.
- Lack of effective response to excessive bleeding.
- Errors that arise from medical staff who are not correctly trained (such as misdiagnosis or failure to properly consult patient notes).
The circumstances of your surgery negligence claim might be different. Just check with our advisors for a free initial consultation.
Surgery Negligence Claims Criteria
As you consider seeking compensation for surgical or medical negligence, you need to meet the criteria to do so:
- You were owed a duty of care
- This duty was breached.
- The breach caused you avoidable harm.
A duty of care applies to every patient receiving surgical care. This includes GPs, nurses, community care staff, surgeons or specialists. If you suffered harm because of a failure on their part to treat you correctly, you could have a valid basis for surgery negligence claims.
To meet their duty to you, healthcare professionals must provide you with the correct minimum standard of treatment or advice. This can include:
- Taking an accurate history from the patient
- Referring patients where necessary
- Investigating all relevant symptoms that a patient presents with
- Thinking about differential diagnoses
- Providing adequate treatment
- Following up on test results or scans
To see if you can claim, you can contact an advisor to discuss your personal circumstances.
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Can I Claim For An Operation Gone Wrong Abroad?
Perhaps you sought a cosmetic procedure abroad and it went wrong? In cases like this, surgical negligence compensation can still apply. Healthcare providers around the globe are bound by standards of professionalism. However, making international claims may be more complex, so it’s a good idea to consult with our surgery negligence claims solicitors to see if they can help.
Our Research Into Surgical Errors
Our research has unearthed some facts about surgical errors:
- In the last five-year period, 11,700 claims against NHS trusts were started for surgical negligence and 8,753 were successfully settled.
- In this same period, the NHS had to pay over £1 billion in damages to claimants.
- The most common cause of surgical errors was delays or failures in treatment, which was logged nearly 2,000 times.
- Unnecessary pain was the most reported surgical error with 1,990 reported cases.
How Can Negligence In The Operating Room Happen?
The following are examples of negligence that can occur in the operating theatre:
- A tired surgeon fails to check the correct location for surgery and carries out a procedure on the wrong limb. This delays treatment of the original issue and creates more pain and recovery for the patient.
- Poorly trained healthcare providers administer the wrong amount of anaesthesia to a patient, and they regain consciousness during an operation. This causes the patient both significant harm as well as psychological trauma.
- An undetected swab left inside of a patient after an operation creates an infection. Because of this, the patient required an additional procedure to remove it, which badly delayed their recovery time and overall well-being.
The NHS tries hard to deliver a standard of healthcare to all of its patients. You may feel sympathetically for over-stretched hospitals and reluctant to start a medical negligence claim against the NHS. It is important to note that money to pay compensation to those who suffer medical negligence is set aside by the NHS each year. Your damages would not be paid out of front-line care.
Talk to our team about these concerns, and they will explain your potential options for starting surgery negligence claims.
The Potential Impacts Of A Surgery Gone Wrong
Incorrect surgery or medical treatment can create a wide range of problems for the patient:
- They suffer additional harm on top of the initial health problem.
- A delay in the recovery can occur.
- A permanent disability can arise.
- The patient suffers needless psychological distress.
- They cannot return to work as expected and may suffer financially.
- The patient experiences additional medical expenses like private care bills to correct the problem.
Fatal Surgical Errors
In some cases, surgical negligence can lead to a fatality. You can claim compensation for the pain and suffering experienced by a loved one who died. Under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions Act) 1934 (LRMPA), the deceased’s estate may be able to bring forward an action.
In addition to this, the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (FAA), explains how certain qualifying relatives and dependants can claim for how the death has impacted them. Compensation can cover funeral costs, lost companionship and impact on the family unit as a whole. Additionally, under the FAA certain relatives also qualify for a bereavement award. This is set out as a lump sum of £15,120 shared between all the family members who successfully apply.
Please contact our advisors for further free guidance on surgery negligence claims and who can claim compensation after a fatal surgical error.
How Much Compensation Could I Get For An Operation Gone Wrong?
If your surgical or medical negligence claim is a success, the compensation might cover two areas of loss called general and special damages.
General damages compensate for the physical pain and emotional suffering the person endured. In addition to this, an amount may apply for any significant loss of amenity and long-term disability.
To calculate a monetary value for issues like this, those involved in the process will look at your medical evidence. They may consult documents that offer guideline amounts of compensation like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This publication gives suggested award bracket amounts for diverse injuries. Importantly, the amounts are intended as a guide only.
Every medical negligence claim has factors that make it unique. Because of this, we recommend that you speak to our team to get a more exact idea of what could apply in your case. An excerpt from the JCG (except the top entry) is below:
Compensation Guidelines
| INJURY | HOW SEVERE? | COMPENSATION GUIDELINES |
|---|---|---|
| Serious forms of multiple harm and Special Damages | Serious | Up to £1,000,000 plus. |
| Paralysis | Paraplegia | £267,340 to £346,890 |
| Arms | (b) Amputation Loss of One Arm (i) | Not Less Than £167,380 |
| (b) Loss of One Arm (iii) | £117,360 up to £133,810 | |
| Leg | (a) Above-Knee Amputation of One Leg (iii) | £127,930 up to £167,760 |
| (a) Below-Knee Amputation of One Leg (iv) | £119,570 up to £162,290 | |
| Psychological Harm | (a) Severe | £66,920 to £141,240 |
| Kidney | (c) Loss of Kidney | £37,550 up to £54,760 |
| Spleen | (a) Loss of Spleen | £25,380 up to £32,090 |
| Scarring | A group of small scars or single disfiguring scar. | £9,560 to £27,740 |
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What Are Special Damages?
Surgery negligence claims for compensation often include financial harm. Special damages are the head of loss where these amounts can be claimed back. It is necessary to present documented proof of financial loss caused by the surgery error. This might be:
- Medical bills for treatment you had to pay for.
- Proof of the costs for people to look after you.
- Wage slips that indicate a drop or loss in income.
- Receipts and tickets for travel expenditures to appointments.
- The invoices or receipts for any modifications to your home or vehicle.
Special damages must be claimed in conjunction with general damages. So if you’d like personalised guidance on what out-of-pocket costs you could include in your surgical negligence claim, speak to us first.
Why Should I Claim With Legal Expert?
Our surgical negligence solicitors provide an array of excellent services to help people like you get the compensation you deserve. For example, they do this by:
- Helping you collect supporting evidence like statements from witnesses or medical reports from specialists.
- Calculating the potential compensation more precisely to include harm caused both now and predicted in the future.
- Taking care of the negotiations with the other side and following the Pre-Action Protocol that applies.
- Meeting any court-imposed deadlines.
- Explaining the legal jargon and providing you with regular status reports about the claim.
While our solicitors take care of these details, you can concentrate on your recovery. Take a moment to see how you could benefit from advantages like these with your surgical or medical negligence claim.
Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA)
Another bonus is that our solicitors offer eligible claimants a way to access excellent legal representation without adding to their financial burden right now. By offering a version of a No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), the person claiming can expect:
- No solicitors fees to pay upfront.
- No solicitors fees to pay as the claim advances.
- Nothing is owed to solicitors for finished work if the claim is unsuccessful.
- A success fee is deducted from the compensation if the claim wins. This is a restricted percentage taken after the claim settles.
- Because the success fee is capped, the person seeking compensation in surgery negligence claims can confidently expect to receive the majority of the compensation awarded.
Advantages like this mean that a claimant could benefit from first-class legal representation without financial stress. Interested in learning more?
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Learn More
As well as information on surgery negligence claims in this article, there’s more free information to help here:
- Read about claims for unnecessary surgery here.
- Here is information about delayed surgery for a broken arm.
- Also, details about laser eye surgery compensation claims.
External help:
- This resource looks at professional standards for general practitioners.
- Here is information from NHS Resolution about negligence claims.
- In addition to this, advice on how to make a complaint about medical care.
In conclusion, we value your interest in this article about surgery negligence claims. Please reach out to advisors for any more guidance about legal fees and No Win No Fee claims for compensation.