GP negligence claims

Penningtons Manches Cooper’s specialist GP negligence solicitors provide expert advice and representation for individuals pursuing GP negligence claims across the UK. Our experienced team regularly secures financial compensation, supporting patients whose health has been negatively impacted by errors in general practice.

Specialist GP negligence solicitors

General practitioners (GPs) are often the first medical professionals patients turn to when facing health concern. Their role involves accurately diagnosing conditions, identifying urgent issues, and making prompt referrals to specialists when needed. However, mistakes can happen, and as with all medical negligence claims, the effects of any delay or failure in treatment on the part of GPs can be devastating – even where the initial signs and symptoms may seem relatively benign.

Our team frequently advises on GP compensation claims arising from a variety of clinical mistakes. Typical examples of the negligence claims we manage include: failure to correctly diagnose and investigate symptoms; maintaining incorrect initial diagnoses despite patients not responding to treatment; inadequately assessing urgency; failing to refer patients promptly for necessary investigations or specialist consultations; and neglecting to act on or follow up crucial test results.

We also handle GP claims involving prescription errors; insufficient examination or history-taking; failure to recognise critical ‘red flag’ symptoms; inadequate management of chronic conditions (such as diabetes); and failures to advise patients appropriately on when to seek further medical attention. Our solicitors have extensive experience navigating clinical negligence claims against GP practices, and where necessary, managing complex cases involving multiple healthcare providers, including hospitals.

Penningtons Manches Cooper understands the distress and difficulties caused by GP negligence. We have a deep understanding of medical negligence law, the NHS guidelines that GPs should adhere to, and the common issues around record-keeping, referral processes, and communication between GP practices and hospitals. Our GP negligence solicitors thoroughly investigate each case to secure the best possible outcomes for our clients.

This practice exudes professionalism coupled with the ability to make their clients feel very relaxed and at ease in their presence.

If you have concern about care received from your GP and believe you may have a GP negligence compensation claim, get in touch with our specialist medical negligence solicitors. We will carefully discuss your circumstances, explain the claims process, outline potential damages, and guide you clearly through every step of making a compensation claim against a GP practice.

We are always happy to discuss GP negligence claims and any other medical negligence compensation cases on an informal, no-obligation basis in the first instance.

How we help our clients

Investigating failures to diagnose or fully explore symptoms

Challenging ongoing treatment based on inaccurate or outdated diagnoses

Assessing delays or omissions in urgent referrals and follow-up care

Acting on ignored or mishandled test results and referrals

Addressing poor standards of safeguarding in care

Pursuing claims involving prescription mistakes or medication mismanagement

Highlighting inadequate clinical assessments or incomplete patient histories

Supporting patients affected by substandard care of chronic conditions

Useful resources

Making a medical negligence claim

Funding a medical negligence claim

They have genuine strength in depth and are really down to earth, committed, and true specialists in their field.

The team were extremely professional and competent and I always felt that my case was in very good hands. Above this, however, I appreciated their kind and sympathetic manner through the process.

First class: professional, friendly, sensitive and ultimately successful! Thank you so much.

I felt that my solicitor was really fighting for what she thought I deserved. She was a great match. Her advice was important to me.

Everyone at Penningtons has always treated me with respect and compassion and done their best to help with my situation. I feel the whole team really have my best interests at heart.

Recent work highlights

Mismanagement of child’s ear infection

Settling a substantial claim for damages against a GP for an 11 year old client who suffered permanent visual disability following a delay in the management of an ear infection, including a failure to prescribe antibiotics.

Negligent breast cancer care by GP

Obtaining compensation against our client’s GP for not carrying out a proper examination or referring her for a lump in her breast. When cancer was finally diagnosed, she underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy, and had a poor prognosis.

Brain damage following heart attack

Winning a negligence claim for a client whose GP failed to diagnose his chest pains as a heart attack. He subsequently collapsed in the street and the delay in his resuscitation led to him suffering brain damage.

Amputation after GP failures to refer

Settling a claim for a diabetic patient who attended his GP practice several times with non-healing ulcers on his foot. He should have been referred and by the time he was seen by a vascular team in hospital, he required an amputation.

Settlement for husband after wife’s death

Acting for a client whose wife reported new symptoms including breathlessness and bruising to her GP. No steps were taken to organise an urgent appointment and she died of leukaemia weeks later. Earlier treatment would have saved her life.

Permanent injury after negligent GP care

Obtaining compensation for a man in his 30s left with long-term neurological damage from developing cauda equina syndrome, when his GP failed to refer him for a same-day MRI scan. This would have prompted emergency decompression surgery.

Case studies

We successfully settled a claim for a woman from Redhill in Surrey against her GP for failing to act properly on a lump which she feared might be cancer.

Our client’s father and grandfather had both suffered prostate cancer. As he was concerned at his own risk of the disease, he asked his GP to arrange tests.

Our client visited his GP complaining of symptoms consistent with meningitis, which the GP initially diagnosed as an ear infection and persisted in that diagnosis for several weeks.

We have recently achieved a settlement for our client, whose husband sadly passed away as a result of severe diabetic ketoacidosis. He began suffering with back pain which became so acute that he could not get out of bed.

We recently settled a substantial claim for damages against a GP for a client who suffered a delay in the management of an ear infection resulting in permanent visual damage, which should have been avoided if she had been properly assessed.