Clinical negligence

If a medical professional makes a mistake in your care it could be clinical negligence.

This information applies to England and Wales.
This information applies to adults. It doesn't apply to children unless specifically stated.
In 2025 the government passed new laws making changes to the Mental Health Act. The changes will come in stages. For now, your rights under the Mental Health Act have not changed. We'll update our information when changes happen.

This page covers:

What is clinical negligence?

Many doctors and medical professionals will give good treatment and care. But sometimes they might get things wrong. Or fail to do something they should do. And you could get harmed as a result.

If a mistake like this happens with your care, it's called 'clinical negligence'.

These are some examples that might be clinical negligence in psychiatry:

A doctor gives you the wrong diagnosis, or takes too long to diagnose you
A doctor puts you on medication for too long
A doctor fails to consider physical causes for your mental health symptoms
A doctor fails to prevent someone from dying by suicide, even though there was a known risk of this happening

If you experience any kind of clinical negligence, you can make a complaint.

But sometimes, making a complaint doesn't work. In this case, you may want to take legal action.

In some cases, you may have the right to get money as compensation.

You'll need to start your legal claim within 3 years from the date of the incident. Or from when you knew the injury was negligent.

If you're a carer or family member, you might be able to make a legal claim for someone who has experienced negligence.

It's always important to get legal advice before going to court.

How to prove clinical negligence

If you take a legal claim to court, you and your lawyers will have to prove that there was negligence.

To do this, you need to show that all these things are true:

The medical professional had a duty to give good care and not cause you injury.
The medical professional failed in their duty to give good care.
Their failure to give good care caused harm to your physical or mental health.
Their failure to give you good care was the main reason for your harm.
You have had damage or other losses because of that harm. Damage could include physical injury. Or psychiatric injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Or any financial loss, for example future earnings.

Mental health harm following a physical injury

When a medical professional is negligent with your physical care, this can sometimes also harm your mental health. This is called consequential harm.

You might be able to claim compensation for any psychological harm caused by an injury, as well as for the injury itself.

But you must be able to show a connection between the injury and your mental health. And you must be experiencing symptoms that would meet the criteria for the diagnosis of a mental health problem.

Example

Warning: this example talks about someone taking their own life.

Les was a patient detained under the Mental Health Act. She had one-to-one observations because she was experiencing suicidal feelings and self-harm.

When she improved, she was allowed to leave hospital for a short while, so long as she stayed with her healthcare worker. This is called 'escorted leave'. But she ran away and attempted suicide. The care team believed that she was at high risk of taking her own life. But she was not put back onto one-to-one observations, and she took her own life.

Her partner brought a claim of clinical negligence against the hospital. This is because her death could have been prevented.

What compensation could I get?

If you have a successful legal claim, the court can award you money as compensation. This award is known as damages.

Damages can include compensation for:

Pain and suffering
Loss of earnings
If you can't carry out hobbies or daily activities (called 'loss of amenity')
Costs of ongoing treatment and further operations
Costs of extra care or equipment including adapting your home
Psychological interventions such as counselling

In some cases, you may be able to claim compensation even if you weren't the main person involved in the incident.

For example, you could be:

A close relative of someone who was harmed
A rescue worker who witnessed an incident that caused harm

This is called being a secondary victim.

What if I've been sectioned under the Mental Health Act?

If you're sectioned under the Mental Health Act, it can be more difficult to prove clinical negligence. This is because the law allows you to have treatment without your consent.

See our page on consent to treatment for more information.

Example

Josh was transferred from his child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) psychiatrist to an adult psychiatrist.

He told his new psychiatrist that he was suicidal. Doctors agreed that Josh would have a treatment plan. But the psychiatrist sent Josh a letter saying he was being discharged from the service without a treatment plan.

Because of this, Josh tried to take his own life. He was then detained under the Mental Health Act and had to delay his plans to study.

In this case, it was found that the psychiatrist's failure to take care of Josh was clinical negligence.

Where can I get support?

If you've experienced clinical negligence, you may need some support. For example, someone like an advocate could help you express your views, and make sure that your voice is heard. You can find out more in our pages on advocacy.

Our page on how to complain about health or social care explains lots of ways to get help.

And we've tips on how to improve your mental wellbeing and managing stress and building resilience. These may also help if you're finding things tough.

Was this page useful? Yes No Tell us more Tell us more

X

Tell us more

Why did you visit this page? *

For my own mental health
For someone else’s mental health
Academic/educational/professional reason
Other reason

What do you want to tell us about?

Praise – things we do well
Criticism – things we could do better
Errors, mistakes or broken links

Please give us your feedback:

Note:

Please don’t include personal details like your name or email address. If you do, data protection law means we’ll have to delete your comments.
Unfortunately we can’t reply to this. If you want a response from us, see our Contact us page.
If you are in crisis right now and want to talk to someone urgently then you could call Samaritans on 116 123 (freephone). Our pages on crisis services have more options.