Medical Negligence Claims in Cyprus

A poor outcome is not by itself negligence

That sentence is the whole difficulty of this subject, and it is worth stating before anything else. Treatment can be carried out competently and still end badly. Complications occur that nobody caused. A claim is not about whether the result was what you hoped for. It is about whether the care fell below the standard required, and whether that failure, rather than the underlying condition, caused the harm.

That is why these claims turn on independent expert evidence to a degree that no other kind of personal injury claim does, and why they take longer to assess before anyone can tell you whether there is anything in them.

What to send us in a first enquiry

A short chronology: when you first attended, who you saw, what was said, what was done, and when things went wrong. The names of the hospital or clinic and of the practitioners. Any records, discharge letters, imaging reports, prescriptions or consent forms you already hold. Whether you have made any complaint, and to whom, and whether anybody has replied.

What has to be shown

Two questions, and the second is harder

Whether the care fell below the standard required

This is judged against what was known and accepted at the time, in the relevant field of practice, and not with the benefit of what is known now. It is not established by showing that another practitioner would have done something different. It is established by expert evidence from someone practising in the same field.

Whether that failure caused the harm

This is where most of these claims are decided. A patient who was already unwell, and who would in any event have suffered some part of what followed, has to show what difference the failure actually made. Separating the consequences of the condition from the consequences of the treatment is expert work, and it is the reason a claim cannot be assessed from the account alone.

What you were told beforehand

A separate question sometimes arises about what a patient was told before agreeing to a procedure, and whether the information given was adequate. Consent forms, and the notes of the discussion that preceded them, are among the first documents we look for.

Whether the treatment was given in a public or a private setting affects who the claim is against and how it proceeds, and it should be established at the outset rather than assumed.

Evidence

The records, complete and unedited

The medical records are not part of the evidence in these claims. They are very nearly all of it.

Ask for the complete file rather than a summary, and ask in writing so that there is a record of when you asked. A discharge letter is not the file. What is usually needed is everything, including the parts that look administrative.

Clinical notes for every attendance, in full, including handwritten entries
Nursing notes and observation charts, which frequently record the timing of a deterioration more precisely than anything else in the file
Imaging and the reports on it, and laboratory results
Operation notes, anaesthetic records and drug charts
Consent forms and any information sheet you were given
Referral letters and correspondence between practitioners
Records from every other institution involved, including any subsequent treatment elsewhere, because the later records often describe the earlier failure

Write your own account now, while it is fresh, with dates and names and what was said to you. Recollection of conversations is the part of this evidence that degrades fastest, and unlike the records it exists nowhere else.

Keep any complaint correspondence. A response to a complaint is a document written by the other side about the same events, and it is worth having whether or not it is satisfactory.

What the claim covers, and the time you have

A claim covers the harm attributable to the failure and its documented consequences, including further treatment made necessary by it. The heads of loss usually examined are set out in the firm's guide, Personal Injury Claims in Cyprus. The value of a claim of this kind depends on what the expert evidence shows the failure actually caused, which is why it cannot be indicated at the outset.

A claim for damages for personal injury must generally be brought within three years under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012. Time usually runs from the date of the injury, and different rules can apply where the damage became apparent only later, which arises more often in this area than in any other. Whether that helps in a particular case is a question to put early. Making a complaint, and waiting for the answer, should not be assumed to hold time still.

Questions we are asked

Will you tell me straight away whether I have a claim?

No, and anybody who does is guessing. What we can do early is tell you what has to be established, obtain the complete records, and say whether there is enough to justify an independent expert opinion. That opinion, not the account of what happened, is what answers the question.

I have already complained to the hospital.

Send us everything: what you wrote, what they replied, and when. A complaint and a claim are different processes with different purposes, and the outcome of one does not determine the other. Do not assume that a complaint pauses the limitation period.

I do not want to sue the doctor. I want to know what happened.

That is a common and entirely legitimate starting point, and obtaining the complete records is the step that serves it. Understanding what the file shows comes first in any event. Whether anything follows from it is a decision you take afterwards, with the file in front of you.

The treatment was several years ago.

Tell us the dates, including when you first realised something had gone wrong, because that second date is sometimes relevant. Do not conclude on your own that it is too late, and equally do not assume that it is not. It is the first question we would look at.

Written on this subject

Personal Injury Claims in Cyprus: Liability, Evidence and Damages

Personal injury

This page sits within Litigation & Debt Recovery. Back to personal injury. Στα ελληνικά.

Request a consultation

Tell us briefly how we may assist

A few sentences is enough: what was done, when, and where. We reply within one business day. Please do not send confidential documents until we confirm we can act.

Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia. Telephone +357 22 680 330, office@kleanthousplatis.com, or klitos@kleanthousplatis.com.

Request a consultation

Or write to us directly at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or call +357 22 680 330.