QLD Can I Sue My Psychiatrist for Medical Negligence?

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awals

Member
31 August 2014
2
0
1
Hi, if any one could help I would appreciate it.

Can I sue for malpractice of my psychiatrist Dr [Name Redacted by Moderator]. My biggest complaint of her was I had depression and she treated me with more then two different types of antidepressant at different times because I was unsuccessful with the treatment I should have been diagnosed as TRD and gone with appropriate types of treatment. She did not. She kept putting me on single types of medication.

My GP prescribed me endep for sleeping problems how ever having the Zoloft and endep together worked a little better (two different antidepressants is a common treatment for TRD) I was able to do things for about 15 minutes a day that was it the rest was in bed. She thought that was good enough and left me like that. 6months later it stopped working so she tried me on a single dose of antipressant again. She didn't diagnose me with RTD till I said isn't it obvious I have it? And we should be trying other methods. She also diagnosed me of having a psychotic episode when I had depersonalization and I kept telling her it wasn't like psychosis I wasn't hearing voice.

I got diagnosed by a different psychiatrist I happen to get one day because she couldn't do the appointment. I was also diagnosed with severe panic disorder and she put me on an antidepressant and instead of making a 2 week booking she make a six week booking and didn't bother to check if the medication was actually working and I ended up in hospital. She also misdiagnosed me with an eating disorder because my antipsychotic caused me to gain 20kg and I wanted to lose it because I felt crap about myself.

Lost about 5 kg and felt better about myself but I got hospitalised and because I had a diagnosis of an eating disorder the put me on a meal plan which the nurse said would cause me to purge afterwards which did happen even though I was already at a healthy weight and not underweight at all when I got put on this plan because of her diagnosis and of cause afterward I purged for a while and gain all the weight again. I feel like absolute s**t about myself now.

I know I'm not fat but compart to how I use to look I look like s**t and am ashamed of myself to the point where I don't want to leave the house and be seen by people who may have known what I looked like before. After all this she later admit that I didn't have an eating disorder and never did.

Can I sue her for medical negligence?

Thanks
 

Sarah J

Well-Known Member
16 July 2014
1,314
251
2,389
Melbourne, Victoria
Hi awals,

I would consider lodging a complaint against the practitioner first and seeing if you have any grounds or if the practitioner's actions are able to be justified. See RANZCP for more information about complaint procedures in Australia.

More avenues:
- Queensland Health offer mental health information and resources
- Australian Psychological Society on 1800 333 497
- Health Ombudsman to lodge health complaints
- Queensland Government's fact sheet on lodging complaints for health services