Liability

Liability

Duty of care and causation

The following issues need to be considered in every clinical negligence claim:

A medical practitioner owes a duty of care to their patient. This duty is to take reasonable care to:

•
take a proper history
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investigate the patient’s symptoms and complaints properly
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make proper differential diagnoses
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make any necessary referrals to specialists
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initiate action in order to take all reasonable steps to procure the health of the patient
•
provide a reasonable course of treatment
•
follow the patient up afterwards if that is reasonably necessary

There are two elements to establishing breach of duty of care: firstly, determining the appropriate standard of care; and secondly, proving that the conduct in question fell below that standard. For further guidance, see Practice Note: Duty of care and breach in clinical negligence claims.

Once breach of duty has been established, a claimant must prove causation of injury in order to pursue a claim for clinical negligence. However, an injury resulting from clinical negligence does not automatically mean a claimant will be awarded damages by the court. The tort only results in

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