-
Common forms of optician negligence
- Misdiagnosis: If an optician makes a mistake in diagnosing a condition, this may cause them to pursue an incorrect form of treatment. Receiving the wrong treatment can lead to serious damage to your eyes.
- Failure to diagnose: Similarly, if an optician fails to diagnose a condition, this may prevent them from pursuing a cause of treatment which would be beneficial for you. This can mean that a condition gets worse than it otherwise would have done, prolonging discomfort and potentially leading to worse long-term outcomes.
- Delay of treatment: Once again, a failure to begin treatment promptly can mean that a condition gets worse and may have more severe or longer-lasting effects
- Prescription errors: Even a small error in prescribing glasses or contact lenses can damage your eyesight if not rectified. This may require expensive and painful remedial action to fix, or cause permanent weakening of vision.
As well as the impacts described above, complications of optician negligence may include headaches, blurred vision, eye strain or double vision.
-
How we can help you claim for optician negligence
It can take courage and can initially feel daunting approaching a medical negligence solicitor. This is particularly so when wishing to challenge the treatment and care provided by a highly qualified professional such as an optician, who we hold in high regard and who we place our health and trust in.
It is important to appreciate that mistakes happen in any situation involving human beings, regardless of how well trained, skilled, experienced and caring they are. Where mistakes are made and harm is caused with regard to patient care there are consequences that may lead you to consider instructing a solicitor to bring legal action on your behalf.
You may not be considering financial compensation once medical negligence has arisen - you may want to make sure that nobody else experiences the same injury that you did. This is entirely understandable. As humans, we trust in the training and expertise of our healthcare professionals and don’t expect harm to be caused. Many patients want lessons to be learned to prevent further harm for others.
Pursuing a claim against a healthcare professional (public and private) does raise awareness. Pursuing a claim leads to investigation and scrutiny and consideration of existing policies and procedures and to further training. It also allows for a financial settlement to be awarded which places a patient in a better position than they may have otherwise been.
