Principles of Medical Negligience

Negligience is the omission to do something which a reasonable man would do, or

doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do.
Before a patient can succeed in civil action for negligience against a doctor, it must
be established that:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Doctor had a legal duty of care towards the patient, and

There were failures in that duty of care, (breach of std of care) which
Resulted in physical / mental damage
Can be proven by patient

Legal duty of care doctor must provide both diagnosis and treatment at
reasonable std of care that is consistent with doctors own experience and training.
Eg. a junior doctor is not expected to have as much expertise as a specialist, but px
can expect doctor to have kept up to date with major developments in his own field
& closely related fields.
Breach of std of care for negligience to be established, there must be a breach
of std of care, either by commission (doing something wrong), or by omission
(failing to do something). Patient must provide solid evidence of breach of std of
care, to prove that the doctor was negligient. The only exception is when facts are
so obvious and need no explanation
ie. RES IPSA LOQUITOR (Facts speak for itself) refers to situations when its
assumed that persons injury was obviously caused by negligient action of another
party. Eg. if a px goes into the OT to amputate R leg, but L leg removed instead,
there is no dispute the treatment is incorrect, and responsibility shifts to defending
doctor to explain error.
Physical / mental damage even if patient can prove presence of breach of std of
care, cannot succeed in legal actions unless he can show that he has suffered
physical / mental damage.
Bolams test law imposes a duty of care btw doctor and patient, but std of that
care is a matter of medical judgement.
Whitaker test Finding of medical negligience may be made even though conduct of
defendant (practitioner) was in accord with practice accepted at that time, as
proper by a responsible body of medical opinion. Foo Fio Na v Dr. Soo Fook Mun &
Assunta Hospital (2006) rare complication ooccurred left her quadriplegic after
spinal sx