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 show 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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