BCL Law Notes Medical Law and Ethics Notes
A guide to some of the key topics in the BCL course on Medical Law and Ethics.
This features numerous academic positions, case summaries, arguments and up-to-date statistics pertinent to some of the substantial topics in this module (eg. abortion, autonomy, medical negligence)...
The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Medical Law and Ethics Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:
NO FAULT SYSTEM
WHAT IS IT
Patients who suffer some ‘adverse event’ while receiving medical care should receive compensation even if there was no negligence. Thus, it would unnecessary for a court to conduct an enquiry into whether the medical practitioner was negligent.
Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 – creates a no fault compensation scheme in respect of injuries caused by vaccinations performed by the NHS
Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Act (No 2) 2005 - in New Zealand this Act permits compensation to be paid for ‘treatment injury’ without the need to show that the doctor behaved negligently
AGAINST
LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Merry & McCall Smith – no distinction between medical mispractice and unfortunate misadventure fails to bring doctors to account
ME: but law of negligence isn’t meant to bring doctors to account
NEW ZEALAND
Bismark et al (2006) – less than 3% of those who could claim under the scheme do so – meaning it only works because most entitled do not claim
Douglas – NZ shows that there is great difficulty in defining the boundaries of medical injury compensation
COMPENSATION CULTURE
STILL COMPLEX
could be new area of complexity drawing distinction between people who are ill (not compensated) and people suffering as a result of medical treatment going wrong
Douglas – could be major difficulties including the naturally incapacitated within the scheme
EXPENSIVE
CMO (2003) – extremely expensive – even with a 25% cut in the level of compensation it could cost between 1.6 bill and 28 bill p.a.
But these haven’t been found in New Zealand
Keren-Paz – negligence regime encourages settlement – indeed 97% of current clin neg cases settle due to uncertainty
IN FAVOUR
LESS IMPACT ON DOCTORS
Chief Medical Officer (2003) – 38% doctors facing a medical negligence complaint are to suffer clinical depression
OPENNESS
Bristol Inquiry Report (2001) – litigation prevents an environment of full, open reporting within the NHS and it’s simpler
APOLOGIES – s. 2 Compensation Act 2006 means an apology is not an admission of negligence
CURRENT LAW IS UNFAIR
Merry & McCall Smith – blame might be allocated unfairly. Doctor may be...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Medical Law and Ethics Notes.
A guide to some of the key topics in the BCL course on Medical Law and Ethics.
This features numerous academic positions, case summaries, arguments and up-to-date statistics pertinent to some of the substantial topics in this module (eg. abortion, autonomy, medical negligence)...
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