The Law of Medical Negligence

The Law of Medical Negligence

Introduction

The aim of this research paper is to discuss the position of the law of medical negligence with respect to the professional and confidentiality duty in United Kingdom. The paper will further discuss medical malpractice and whether there is a departure from the Hippocratic Oath. Additionally, the paper covers a brief comparison of the law and stance on medical negligence in UK with other countries with the help of theoretical and literature view, current affairs and contemporary academic articles and journals.

Before moving on towards the major discussion, it is imperative to understand the significance of medical negligence. It should be noted that not every medical error is automatically a medical malpractice and that every individual case should be evaluated individually and separately by impartially assessing their circumstances.

Technically medical negligence or malpractice falls under Professional Negligence. Professional Negligence is defined as a negligent failure to perform or exhibit improper performance of official duties, causing minor or major damage due to careless or negligent attitude or behaviour. It also refers to a failure to exercise reasonable care level, or not to use the same level of care that a reasonable person would use under similar circumstances. The affectees of this professional negligence is usually not restricted to immediate customers, rather it broadens to a major dimension and includes all stakeholders.

Engaging in professional negligence involves a professional and/or legal liability, i.e. the obligation to compensate damages by the injury to the victim. In more severe cases act of professional negligence may translate into a criminal liability, which is described as the act which constitutes a crime of recklessness. Therefore the medical surgeon, who is professionally liable to operate a patient and ends up in neglecting the conditions and requirements of the procedure by improper care of surgical instruments, shall be considered as Medical Negligence.

Discussion

The first thing to do in a medical malpractice was to analyze whether it is a viable case. Not all the damage occurred in a hospital are the result of a mistake, do not forget that with few exceptions, when a person is in a hospital that has a disease and injury arising from the same may not be a cause of treatment or the lack thereof. For there to be a medical malpractice first thing to be is an injury, lack of education, the assumptions of "almost a misfortune happens" or not actual damage "until we were told he had had a fatal" errors can not be considered doctors.

Once the damage we know what causes it. Damage caused by medical malpractice may come from a performance (eg implementation of a medication error) or a medical omission (eg failure to apply the proper treatment in time) discarding those cases where the cause of damage is not attributable to an act or omission care. Besides the existence of harm as a result of a medical act or omission, negligent element must attend. What do we neglect? Neglect occurs when a doctor acts ...