Working Paper: ‘Medical Duty to Advise: Legislating the Standard of Care’ by Professor Kumaralingam Amirthalingam

Professor Kumaralingam Amirthalingam’s working paper, ‘Medical Duty to Advise: Legislating the Standard of Care’ is now available on SSRN.

Abstract

The standard of care of doctors in medical negligence cases is determined by the Bolam test, according to which doctors are not negligent if they act in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of medical opinion. This is known as the peer professional test. While this test is suitable to the duty to diagnose, treat, and advice, it poses challenges for the duty to inform patients of risks in proposed treatment and alternatives. This paper reviews the law on the standard of care in medical negligence, and analyses the new section 37 of the Civil Law Act. It identifies some potential challenges in applying the new law.

Download the paper at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3949456