The patient injury case from A to Z

If you suffer personal injury as a result of receiving healthcare treatment, you may be entitled to compensation if the basic conditions are met according to the rules in the Patient Injury Act.

This requires that there has been a failure in treatment, technical failure of equipment, infection from the hospital, etc. Examples of such failures in treatment are delayed diagnosis or treatment, information failure and incorrect treatment. A patient injury case can be challenging for the person concerned, and the case processing is often perceived as long. Below I will give a brief account of the procedure in a patient injury case so that it will be easier to orientate yourself about where you are in the procedure.

Report the injury to Norwegian Patient Injury Compensation

A patient injury case always starts by reporting the injury to Norwegian Patient Injury Compensation (NPE). It is therefore important that the claim form is completed as quickly as possible. From the outset, it may be beneficial to realise that NPE is an administrative body that emphasises its neutrality. They are therefore keen to emphasise that it is they who will prepare and decide the case.

Is there a basis for liability?

On receipt of the claim form, NPE will begin work on mapping out what has happened. NPE therefore obtains medical records from all relevant treatment centres. In addition, NPE requests that the complained treatment centre (alternatively the treatment centres) makes a statement about the case. The injured party has the right to access the case and the case documents at any time, and to make any comments.

NPE will then submit the case documents to a consulting doctor who will write an expert report based on a mandate from NPE. In the mandate, the expert is asked to assess, for example, whether there has been a failure in the provision of health care, and whether the failure has resulted in personal injury - i.e. whether there is a causal link between any failure and the personal injury.

The expert assessment is sent to the injured party, who is given the opportunity to make comments.

NPE then makes a decision on the basis for liability and whether or not the injured party is entitled to compensation under the Patient Injury Act.

If NPE decides that there was no failure in the provision of healthcare or that the injured party is not entitled to compensation under the Patient Injury Act, the decision can be appealed to the Patient Injury Board. The deadline for this is three weeks from receipt of the decision.

Determination of compensation

If NPE decides that the injured party is entitled to compensation under the Patient Injury Act, NPE will begin the work of preparing the case for the assessment of compensation. It is important to note that in all cases where the NPE has decided that there is liability for compensation under the Patient Injury Act, the NPE will cover legal fees from the date of the liability decision until the NPE makes a decision on the amount of compensation.

Assessing the severity of the injury is an important part of determining the size of the compensation claim. NPE will therefore request an advisory doctor to assess the extent of the injury and permanent medical disability in an expert report. The specialist will use the medical documentation available in the case to assess the injury according to the disability table (the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs« disability table). This is a table in the regulations on compensation for occupational injuries where most conceivable injuries are given a percentage value. It is then said that the injured party has a permanent medical disability corresponding to »X" %.

The specialist's statement will form the basis for the handling of the rest of the case, including the calculation of the actual compensation amount.

The rest of the case consists of obtaining information that can shed light on the size of the financial loss as a result of the patient injury. The relevant compensation items that must be substantiated are as follows:

• Incurred and future additional expenses
• Incurred and future loss of income
• Incurred and future home acquisition losses
• The tax disadvantage
• Ménerstatningen (Compensation for loss of enjoyment of life)

NPE will accept the injured party's view of what kind of loss he/she has suffered, and may take note of this before making a decision on the amount of compensation to be paid. It is possible to appeal if you disagree with the liability decision or the assessment decision.

Regardless of whether an appeal is necessary or not, it is important to realise that such compensation cases can take a long time, often several years.

In a later post, we will look at appeal options in a patient injury case.