An emergency department is judged by what a reasonably careful emergency doctor or nurse would have done with the information they had at the time. This page explains the failures that lead to claims, from triage to discharge.
An A&E negligence claim is a medical negligence claim about care in a hospital emergency department. The court does not expect a busy department to get every diagnosis right at first sight.
Under the Dunne test, it asks whether a reasonably careful emergency doctor or nurse would have acted differently with the symptoms, history and results available, and whether that would have changed the outcome.
Claims usually arise at one of these points:
Triage sorts patients by clinical urgency, not by arrival time. A long wait on its own is rarely negligent. A claim usually needs a failure to recognise how urgent the case was, or to re-check a patient who was getting worse in the waiting room.
Emergency department records are time-stamped, which makes the timeline easier to prove. We get:
An independent emergency medicine expert reviews the timeline, and often a second expert reports on what earlier treatment would have changed.
Proceedings issue in court only once that evidence supports the claim. The Injuries Resolution Board doesn't deal with A&E claims, because its remit leaves out claims arising from health services.
Where a head injury was missed, read brain injury claims: the compensation process.
Contact us through our enquiry form, phone, or email. We’ll review your situation, answer your questions, and explain what to expect next. There’s no upfront fee to begin your claim.
Your case will be carefully reviewed by our legal team.
We assess the strength of your claim, advise on the documentation needed, and guide you through key steps such as attending an independent medical examination and preparing the information required for the Injuries Resolution Board (IRB).
Once you decide to move forward, we take care of everything. This includes gathering evidence, contacting the other party or their insurer, submitting your claim to the IRB, managing settlement discussions, and handling any court proceedings if needed.
Paul Kearney founded the practice and leads its medical negligence work in Ireland. He is regulated by the Law Society of Ireland. Read Paul's profile.
Every medical negligence claim needs independent expert evidence. We instruct independent medical experts in the relevant field to report on the care you received and on what difference it made.
We get your medical records and go through them with you, so that you know where you stand before any claim is started.
There are no upfront fees. Before you go ahead, we set out in writing how legal costs work, as section 150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 requires. No Win No Fee explained.
Not for the wait alone. A claim needs evidence that the delay was below a reasonable standard, for example a missed warning sign at triage, and that it caused you harm that faster treatment would have avoided.
It depends on the review before discharge. The questions are whether your observations were rechecked, whether test results were seen, whether a senior doctor should have reviewed you, and whether you were told which symptoms meant coming straight back.
Clinical guidelines list warning signs after a head injury that call for a CT scan, such as drowsiness, repeated vomiting or a seizure.
If those signs were present and no scan was done, or the scan was misread, an independent emergency medicine expert can say whether the care fell below a reasonable standard.
Possibly. Hospitals screen for sepsis using observations and blood tests, and antibiotics are meant to start quickly once it is suspected. A claim looks at what the observation charts showed, how long it took to act, and what difference earlier antibiotics would have made.
The claim is usually brought against the hospital or the HSE rather than the individual doctor. In a public hospital, the Clinical Indemnity Scheme run by the State Claims Agency covers non-consultant hospital doctors, nurses and other clinical staff.
No. Under Part 4 of the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 2017, an apology given in open disclosure is not an admission of liability. It is still worth noting what you were told and when.
No. Unlike a road or workplace injury claim, a claim about emergency care goes straight to court once independent medical evidence supports it. See how the Injuries Resolution Board works for the claims it does deal with.
Two years from your date of knowledge, under the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991. If a fracture was found at a later visit, time usually runs from when you learned it had been missed. For a child, the two years start at 18.
No. There are no upfront fees. Before you go ahead, we give you clear written terms explaining how legal costs work, as section 150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 requires. Read No Win No Fee explained.
Regulated by the Law Society of Ireland
Kearney Law handles only personal injury and clinical negligence claims.
We act for clients across Ireland, including Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Letterkenny. See all the areas we cover.
Contact us to talk to a solicitor about your claim, or request a case review.
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