rumpole and the expert witness….. the slaughtered lamb…. stay on the road keep clear of the...
TRANSCRIPT
Rumpole and the Expert Witness….
The Slaughtered Lamb….
Stay on the road
Keep clear of the moors….
Stick with what you know
The Claimant has to succeed on both liability and causation to obtain compensation:
Liability to show that the doctor or nurse must have been found to have acted in a manner that no other similar professional would have done.
Causation that harm has resulted which would not otherwise have occurred (on the balance of probability, i.e. the action of the doctor or nurse was more than 50% likely to have caused the harm).
Bolams test
• This legal test expects standards which must be in accordance with a responsible body of opinion, even if others differ in opinion.
• In other words, the Bolam test states that:
"If a doctor/nurse reaches the standard of a responsible body of medical opinion, he is not negligent".
Bolitho test
• In the case of Bolitho, the House of Lords decided in effect that, if the management by a body of responsible doctors was not demonstrably reasonable, it would not necessarily constitute a defence.
• If professional opinion, called in support of a defence case, was not capable of withstanding logical analysis then the court would be entitled to hold that the body of opinion was not reasonable or responsible. More simply put - you cannot defend a case on the basis of a current practice that is not reasonable or logical.
Litigation Case Study
• 45 year old female• Significant O/D antipsychotic medication• CCU 3 days• Discharged AMHU• Cat 2 PD to heel
Themes from serious incident investigation-
Root Cause Analysis
• Risk assessment• Care planning• NICE CG 179 • Policy• Concordance• Documentation
• Themes from civil litigation……
