I won’t attempt to better the summary of the legal opinion and precedent cases presented in the blog of Lauren Sutherland QC. This is a recent case, concerning a case of meningitis that ended in tragedy.
The following is a quote from this article:
‘The Consultant involved in C’s care was a new Consultant and the court confirmed that in law the skill to be expected of a doctor is that of reasonably competent member of the profession who has the same level of seniority, irrespective of the length of experience in that post with reference to FB v Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust. The court also emphasised there is a duty to ensure that patients are seen by clinicians of the appropriate specialism and the appropriate level of seniority’.
Whilst this case relates to paediatric care, the lessons are ones we all need to understand whatever our specialty.
Inexperienced doctors discharge their duty of care by seeking assistance from more experienced colleagues. More experienced doctors have a duty to the patient to ensure that the individual treating them has sufficient skill, and if not, to supervise closely or take over.
I recommend that anyone interested in clinical negligence (that is everyone, for surely everyone is interested in avoiding being found negligent) should subscribe to Lauren Sutherland’s blog.