Sir Liam Donaldson – "Patients deserve to receive
quality healthcare"
- UK
Clinical negligence law defines negligence as any act or omission which
falls short of a standard to be expected of "the reasonable
man."
- It
is necessary to show that whatever the Doctor did or did not do fell below
the standard of a reasonably competent Doctor in that field of medicine.
- In
the leading case of "Bolam – v – Friern Hospital Management Committee
1957" it was stated that a doctor must act in accordance with a
practice which is accepted as proper by a responsible body of men
- There
are several acceptable ways of doing something and this may mean that
there is no negligence if an alternative method is chosen.
- The
fact that another person would not have done things in the same way does
not automatically mean that there was clinical negligence.
- The
Doctor will be able to defend the compensation claim successfully, if it
can be shown that a responsible body of reputable Doctors in the relevant
field would have acted in a similar manner.
- This
means that a judge will hear evidence from experts and decide whether the
actions taken were appropriate.
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