Injury to the patient

Abstract

This chapter briefly examines the criminal law relating to injury to a patient but principally concerns the nature and extent of civil liability resulting from negligent care and treatment. Injury to the patient may be caused by negligent, incompetent treatment, wrong diagnosis and frequently by failure of communication. As Chapter 8 explains, the jurisdiction of the Health Service Commissioner (Ombudsman) does not extend to complaints involving allegations of medical negligence or other clinical judgment. Nevertheless, as a former deputy Health Service Commissioner was once heard to say: ‘Although we cannot go through the door marked clinical judgment, we can go right up to it and knock on it very hard.’ The regular reports of the Health Service Commissioner to Parliament frequently refer to instances of injury caused not by incompetence in treatment or diagnosis but by simple failure of communication. Litigation in the courts is increasingly the avenue chosen by victims of poor communication between health care professionals, provided they can prove that the deficiency in communication caused their injury.