A hospital or GP negligence claim arises where care from a general practitioner, a hospital or a treating team fell below a reasonable standard and caused you harm. It covers failures in diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, referral and communication, and both individual practitioners and institutions can be responsible.
One question comes up more than any other: who do you actually claim against? In a public hospital the defendant is usually the health service rather than the individual clinician, because a public hospital is generally responsible for the care its staff provide. In private care the position varies, because a specialist may be independently engaged rather than employed.
You do not need to resolve that before seeking advice. Identifying the right defendant is part of investigating a claim.
| Where you were treated | Who the claim is usually against | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Public hospital | The health service | Generally responsible for the care provided by its employed staff |
| Private hospital | The hospital, the treating specialist, or both | A specialist is often independently engaged rather than employed by the hospital |
| GP clinic | The GP, and sometimes the practice | Depends on how the practice is structured and who provided the care |
More than one party can be responsible for the same episode of care. Working out who is part of the investigation, not a precondition to it.
What do you have to prove?
- Below-standard care. The care provided by the GP, hospital or treating team fell below what a competent practitioner in that setting would have provided, whether in diagnosis, treatment, monitoring or communication.
- Harm. You suffered a real and identifiable injury as a result, rather than a bad outcome from a known and accepted risk.
- Causation. The substandard care caused or materially contributed to that harm. Expert evidence is usually needed to establish the link.
The full framework is set out in How to establish a medical negligence claim.
What are the most common failures in hospital and GP care?
- Symptoms repeatedly dismissed by a GP when they warranted investigation
- Failure to refer to a specialist when the presentation clearly called for it
- Discharge from hospital before it was safe, leading to readmission in a worse condition
- Post-operative monitoring that missed a developing complication
- Nursing staff not escalating a deteriorating patient to a treating doctor
- Tests or imaging not performed, or performed and never followed up
How long do you have to bring a claim?
Adults generally have three years from the date the claim becomes discoverable. In GP and hospital cases that date is often not the appointment or admission itself: it runs from when you knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that you were harmed and that the care caused it.
A twelve-year long-stop also applies, and different rules cover children and people under a disability. See Time limits for medical negligence claims.
What compensation can you claim?
- Treatment made necessary by the failure in care, including corrective procedures and specialist consultations
- Rehabilitation, care and support, including unpaid care provided by family
- Past and future lost income where the harm has affected your ability to work
- Pain and suffering, where the injury meets the threshold set by the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)
- Ongoing management of a condition that earlier or better care would have prevented or improved
What compensation can you recover explains how each category is worked out.
How Clever handles hospital and GP negligence claims
These claims usually involve a long history across several providers: GP notes, referrals, hospital admissions, imaging and pathology. Locating where the failure occurred means reading the whole record rather than one episode, and that volume is what makes these claims expensive to investigate.
Our technology does the organising. Our lawyers review the evidence and make every legal decision. If the evidence supports a claim, we act on no win, no fee, fixed for each stage of work, capped at 20% of what you recover. If it does not, you are told plainly why.
Common questions
Can you sue a public hospital in Victoria?
Yes. A public health service can be the defendant in a medical negligence claim, and in practice it usually is, because it is generally responsible for the care provided by the staff it employs. That means you do not normally need to identify and pursue an individual doctor or nurse by name in order to bring a claim about care in a public hospital.
Do you claim against the doctor or the hospital?
It depends on where you were treated and how the practitioner was engaged. In a public hospital the health service is usually the right defendant. In private care a specialist may be independently engaged, so the claim may lie against the practitioner, the hospital, or both. This is worked out during the investigation rather than something you need to decide beforehand.
What if several practitioners were involved in your care?
That is common, and it does not prevent a claim. Where care passed between a GP, a hospital and one or more specialists, part of the investigation is identifying which failure caused the harm, and more than one party can be responsible. You do not need to work out where the chain broke before seeking advice.
Does making a complaint affect a negligence claim?
They are separate processes. A complaint to the Health Complaints Commissioner or to Ahpra is about the conduct or standard of a service or practitioner, and it does not award compensation. A negligence claim is a civil claim for loss. Making a complaint does not stop you bringing a claim, and it does not pause the limitation period, so do not treat a complaint as protecting your position on time.
Get your own answer
If you believe your care in hospital or at a GP caused you harm, start a free assessment. Tell us what happened and send any records you already have. There is no obligation and no guaranteed outcome, and you will get a plain answer on where your situation stands.