Clinical Negligence

Question 1

What is clinical negligence?

Answer 1

The patient must prove:

1. Duty of care
2. Breach of that duty
3. The breach caused the claimant loss/harm

Question 2

When is a duty of care established?

Answer 2

the damage is foreseeable
there is a sufficient ‘proximate’ (near) relationship between the claimant and the defendant and
it is just, fair and reasonable to impose a duty

Question 3

What does the test for gross negligence and manslaughter include?

Answer 3

a) the existence of a duty of care to the deceased;
b) a breach of that duty of care which;
c) causes (or significantly contributes) to the death of the victim;
d) the breach should be characterised as gross negligence, and therefore a crime.

Question 4

What is meant by grossness?

Answer 4

‘gross negligence’ must be “truly exceptionally bad, which showed…indifference to an obviously serious risk to the life” of the patient.

Question 5

What must a patient be able to prove for a negligence case to succeed?

Answer 5

1. The dr owed a duty of care to the patient
2. The dr failed to provide the appropriate standard of care (breached his/her duty)
3. That, ‘but for’ the breach in the standard of care, the harm would not have occurred (causation).