Doctors and patients are not natural enemies. On the contrary, there is commonly a special relationship between them, with vulnerability and trust on one side and caring and professional expertise on the other. A medical dispute can create turmoil of that relationship, particularly if it is conducted in the traditional adversarial procedure. Depending on how it develops, the patient may see the...

Clinical negligence claims are a rich source of risk management material. Although medical practice varies to some extent around the globe, familiar themes can be identified from the cases reported to the Medical Protection Society’s (MPS) Claims Committee. Case reports inevitably focus on the lessons that can be learnt and so tend to be reports where the errors in management are unequivocal. H...

time, and though every intelligent mian knowvs that in all medical treatment there is an element of risk the plaintiff often thinks it vorth wvhile trying to convince the court that because there has been a mishap there must necessarily have been negligence. To rebut any such presumption is difficult, and often impossible. But though one has full sympathy wvith a patient wvho has met with furth...

Not all medical injuries are the result of negligence. In fact, most medical injuries are the result either of the inherent risk in the practice of medicine, or due to system errors, which cannot be prevented simply through fear of disciplinary action. This paper will discuss the differences between adverse events, negligence, and system errors; the current medical malpractice tort system in th...

IN medical malpractice litigation, negligence is the predominant theory of liability. The basic elements of a malpractice claim are duty, negligence, causation, and damage. Duty refers to the practitioners responsibility to treat a patient according to the standard of care. Negligence is defined by law as a deviation from the accepted standard of care and, therefore, a breach of duty. Causation...

Abstract Background Professional communities such as the medical community are acutely concerned with negligence: category of misconduct where a professional does not live up to standards expected similar qualifications. Since science is currently strengthening its structures self-regulation in parallel professions, this raises question what extent scientific negligence, and if not, whether it ...