Clinical negligence is a serious problem in the NHS, with claims and costs rising steadily. In order to understand the system fully, reference must be made to the increasingly complex and developing NHS quality regulation and management structure and the law must be considered in this context. This series of articles will look at the concept of clinical negligence and examine some of the legal issues that arise.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Understanding the legal duty of care in the course of negligence.

The first article in this series gave an introduction to clinical negligence (Vol 11(15): 1033-1035). This article begins with a discussion of the law of negligence within the context of the law generally. What must be established in order to bring a legal claim for compensation in negligence is also discussed along with the important concept of owing a legal duty of care. The duty of care concept is illustrated through two cases.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Establishing breach of the duty of care in the tort of negligence.

This article, the third in a series on clinical negligence, looks at the law surrounding breach of the duty of care in negligence. It shows some of the principles that judges and lawyers use in order to decide whether a person has broken his/her duty of care in the tort of negligence. It will be seen that the principles are contained in decided court cases, some of which are quite old but are still relevant today. The focus of this article is on the rule that courts, in deciding the issue of a breach of duty of care, would judge the defendant's conduct by the standard of what the hypothetical, 'reasonable person' would have done in the circumstances of the case.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Establishing breach of the duty of care in the tort of negligence: 2.

This article discusses the law surrounding breach of the duty of care in negligence. A mistake or error does not necessarily mean legal fault and negligence. Judges look at risks and benefits in determining what would have been the appropriate standard of care to be exercised in the circumstances and may decide that the defendant's conduct was reasonable. There are a number of interrelated factors which judges have to balance and these can be categorized as foreseeability of harm, magnitude of risk, burden of taking precautions, utility of the defendant's conduct and common practice.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The professional standard of care in clinical negligence.

The general principle of law relating to breach of duty in the tort of negligence has been discussed during this series of articles. This article continues that discussion in relation to healthcare professionals such as nurses and doctors, and how the law affects their case. The issue of the expanded role of the nurse is also discussed.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical negligence and the need to keep professionally updated.

Nurses and doctors are under a legal duty to keep reasonably up to date; this is a fundamental aspect of their legal duty of care to their patients. A nurse or doctor could be negligent if a patient is harmed because of ignorance of well accepted and known published nursing and medical research findings. It is all a question of fact and degree and cases will turn on their own circumstances. There are a number of reported court cases which explore this issue and which contain useful guidance. These cases are discussed within the context of the new NHS and the Government's emphasis on health quality, and increasing healthcare litigation.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The professional standard of care in clinical negligence.

Clinical guidelines are important healthcare quality management tools which have become more widely known and accepted in the NHS today. There are some problems with the terminology used regarding clinical guidelines and sometimes they are confused with protocols. Clinical guidelines have a number of legal implications and they could be influential in determining the standard of care to be expected in a particular case. The Bolam case shows that a number of care approaches are acceptable as long as they are reasonable. The developers of clinical guidelines should develop an audit trail of their work and build in review dates.

Guideline Adherence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical negligence and causation and remoteness of damage.

In this, the final article of this series on understanding negligence law, the causation and remoteness of damage is discussed. The final element that needs to be established in a negligence case is that the defendant's breach of duty was the cause of the claimant's loss and that this loss was not too far removed or remote from the actions of the defendant. The law involved in this area can be quite difficult to understand as some of the principles used are uncertain and the cases can be quite hard to draw together and reconcile.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied