PSYCHIATRIC NEGLIGENCE

Psychiatric Negligence

Introduction

The objective of this paper is to provide necessary elements that must be proven to be successful in a medical negligence case. The paper would first define what medical negligence is? The next section would tackle the main objective of the paper. This would be done by highlighting the essential elements that need to be proven in a medical negligence case, for the case to be successful. In addition, the research paper will also discuss Negligence actions causing psychiatric damage, and why are the courts so reluctant to impose a duty of care on defendants were the claimant is a “secondary victim”?

Occurrence of psychiatric Malpractice arises for a variety of reasons: Some are intentional and aim to give unjust benefit in an assessment. Some are instances that arise due to unawareness of the set of laws, negligence or absentmindedness in applying the regulations and some take place due to the force of conditions that is away from the control of those involved (www.lamda.org).

Discussion

Medical negligence resulting in psychiatric damage is inherently an act of medical malpractice. This professional negligence is committed through actions or omissions by psychiatric who is failed to make sure that h/her patient receive proper medical attention for their condition.. The treatment provisions by the psychiatric are below the acceptance standards established in the profession by the psychiatric community. These acts of negligence can lead to injury or worse death (Pozgar, 2010). Professionals in the psychiatric field usually obtain professional liability insurances to hedge against the risks and resultant costs posed by lawsuits based on negligence (Pozgar, 2010).

Usually, a professional can be charged with malpractice if he falls short to execute his or her specialized obligation or duty to a task, such as an operation or a normal check-up. The performance of an expert is compared with the performance of other experts of the same field, and if he fails short to deliver the same quality of service which is being delivered by other experts, that person's action is accused as malpractice. Malpractice can be performed by any professional delivering services, but commonly Malpractice is used for attorneys, lawyers, accountants and surgeons. Other professional cannot be seized for malpractice but for carelessness (Kum Martin, 2009).

The UK legal system is devised with aims to resolve disputes before going to a jury trial. As such the process promotes extensive discovery and negotiations. This is done between the opposing parties. Bal has highlighted four essential legal elements that must be proven for a successful negligence case. These are:

1.Professional duties owed to the patient;

2.Violation of such duty;

3.damage caused by the violation, and;

4.Resulting damages.

If a case is successful damages are assessed by accounting for both the actual economic losses as well as punitive charges. These are charges levied on the basis of pain and suffering undergone by the victim of medical negligence (Bal, 2009).

Consider a real successful medical malpractice case. In this case, the plaintiff was a 65 year old woman. She was scheduled to have “routine surgery to repair a ...