Medical Malpratice in Italy

The terms Medical malpractice or negligence (a.k.a. clinical negligence) are used to describe any treatment, lack of treatment, or any other departure from accepted standards of medical care, which causes injury to a patient, including death.

Every day we see in the papers new staggering cases of medical malpractice, sometimes with tragic results. In these events, the citizen is likely to remain defenseless.

If you or a member of your family have been the victim of a medical error in Italy, you have the right to be compensated! Compensation can provide the means to begin rebuilding life after injury, both for you and your family.

The Italian law aims to put you back in the position you were in before the damage occurred. This is done through financial compensation, with damages awards calculated to reflect the extent of your loss.

Our medical negligence solicitors can help you start a compensation claim, if you have suffered from any of the following:

• Delay in diagnosis, or misdiagnosis;
• medical errors, incorrect treatment, medicines, advices or prescriptions;
• Hospital negligence or ill treatment during a hospital visit;
• Surgical negligence;
• Cosmetic surgery negligence;
• Birth negligence or medical failures during childbirth;
• Dental negligence;
• Optician negligence;
• Preventable errors, oversights or minor mistakes.

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• WHICH MEDICAL ERROR CAN BE COMPENSATED IN ITALY?

In Italy, the medical error derives from:

• having the doctor deviated from that technical behavior or from having departed from those rules of conduct that the majority of his colleagues would have observed in the same case (imperizia – incompetence);
• having the doctor ignored risks to which his client is exposed (i.e. he is proving incapable of foreseeing them and therefore of preventing them; imprudenza – imprudence);
• having the doctor omitted, with his behavior of neglect, disinterestedness and superficiality towards the patient, without justified reason, to make those investigations or to implement those therapies that the majority of his colleagues in the same conditions would have implemented (negligenza – negligence).

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• WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?

The responsibility for such errors may depend:

1. on the hospital structure, which has not respected its obligation to monitor the actions of its employees;
2. by a negligent healthcare professional;
3. by a team (doctors and nurses) who, although aware of the limits in the preparation and skills of a particular health care provider, has not denounced the situation (making itself conniving and co-responsible);
4. in the case of a procedure carried out by a doctor undergoing training, by the senior doctor (tutor), who during the specific procedure has the responsibility to monitor and, if he deems it necessary, to interrupt the procedure and / or bring it personally to completion.

The medical practitioner, when is liable, may suffer some serious legal implications and the victims become entitled to start a claim for all damages suffered.

For that purpose, the Italian Law recognizes damages payable which fall into the following categories: patrimonial damages, and non patrimonial damages (for example biological/aesthetic damages, moral damages and psychological suffering).

Call our team now on +44(0)2033 000777 for a first free confidential medical negligence advice about your claim.

For further information please also read Time limits on Medical Negligence Claims in Italy