The place of negligence in medical professions and the legal duties

Liability is a sensitive situation in medical treatments as the primary duty of a medical professional is to provide the best treatment possible to the patient. Negligence in medicine can affect both the patient and the professional as one side’s loss is likely to be harsh and the professional’s mental state can also be affected by the accident. Although it is an unfortunate and unintentional accident, the victim’s medical condition can decrease drastically. Due to many reasons, the duty of care can be breached in medical treatments.

False diagnosis

Once the patient’s medical condition is diagnosed inaccurately, every other aspect of the treatment process can harm the patient. The diagnosis phase is the beginning of the medical treatment process. In the rest of the treatment, wrong medications can be prescribed to the patient, an incorrect operation can be applied, and the victim can sustain major injuries due to the totally incorrect process. From another perspective, the victim can suffer emotional pain due to the incorrect diagnosis. He/she might be forced to quit his/her job for further inpatient treatment while it is completely unnecessary. Such a situation can result in an economic loss that can be hard to withstand.

Surgical errors

Due to surgical errors, the victim can sustain major and life-long injuries. These injuries can decrease the life expectancy of the victim, can lead to economic difficulties and decrease the victim’s ability to independently perform daily tasks. In any area of medicine, surgical errors pose a small risk to the patient. Although the chances are low, the human factor is among the causes of surgical errors. From dental operations to hours-long cardiac surgeries, the medical practitioner’s fault can lead to critical health conditions for the victim. On the other hand, these surgeries can sometimes contain risk naturally. In this situation, the practitioner’s duty is to warn the patient as the patient has the chance to refuse the surgery.

Prescription errors

The negative effects of medications are beyond the common idea. There is a reason for these medications to be used under the supervision of a professional. Over usage of prescription drugs can result in permanent brain damages, muscular malfunction and permanent local loss of senses. To safely use these medications, a doctor should evaluate the victim’s physical and medical condition. Additionally, the majority of these medications react with each other. Which can also result in temporary and permanent harm. Prior to prescription, the medical professional should be certain that the medications that are to be given to the patient are suitable to the patient’s state of health.

The duty of care and medical negligence compensation

Although medical accidents aren’t intentional actions, the victim’s loss should be recovered as it can be unbearable. Due to many complications, the victim can lose his/her ability to work and earn, sustain long-lasting and permanent injuries, and sustain emotional pain. Under the personal injury laws, the victim can be eligible for medical negligence compensation if the medical professional breaches his/her duty of care.

Skipping a small step can start a butterfly effect in medical processes as the rest of the treatment is highly related to the previous steps. There is always a risk in each medical process. However, the intention behind the duty of care is to minimise the inherent risk and eliminate the human error factor.