Malpractice claims: prevention is often a better strategy.

Medical malpractice may be defined as damage suffered by a patient resulting from professional negligence on the part of the carer.2 Modern medicine is an art of healing and caring backed by scientific evidence. Doctors can promise in good faith to do their best for patients but they cannot warrant cure or desirable outcomes. It is clear therefore that mere damage is not a sufficient condition for a suit. With an undesirable result, though, the litigious patient might try to find evidence suggesting negligence to sustain a claim.3 The inherent danger is that a medical practitioner, who has not been negligent but not prudent or informed enough to have taken the necessary measures, could actually become incriminated.