Articles for tag: Bolam, capacity, care, consent, diagnosis, duty, harm, materiality, Montgomery, negligence, risk, standards, warn

Bolam Test: Historical Context and Evolution

The Bolam test originates from the UK case Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee [1957] 1 WLR 582. This legal precedent was set in a negligence case involving medical treatment, establishing a principle that would profoundly influence the standard of care in medical negligence cases not only in the UK but also in various jurisdictions …

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Discounting the Future: How Treasury Decisions Impact NHS Clinical Negligence Payouts

Crown Indemnity was a historical arrangement in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) where the government would cover the cost of clinical negligence claims against medical professionals working in NHS hospitals. This meant that doctors employed by the NHS in England did not need to purchase their own medical malpractice insurance, as the government …

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Surgical and psychiatric malpractice compared

As a result of recent media publicity about surgeon’s performance, I began thinking that I rarely if ever see any stories in the media about psychological harm caused by failures in psychiatric treatments. I reflected on this and thought, that with surgery it is easier to spot errors in retrospect because patients can be subject …

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Polypharmacy

Polypharmacy is the use of multiple medications by a patient, particularly when too many forms of medication are used by a patient, when more medications are prescribed than are clinically warranted, or when all of an individual’s medications are not clinically necessary. While there is no set number of medications that defines polypharmacy, the term …

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