Are Doctors Becoming More Aware Of Medical Negligence?

Because of an increase in high profile compensation payouts for medical negligence, doctors are becoming more 'risk aware' in their work. This apparent 'risk aware' culture could be compared to how doctors work in the US, where a culture of compensation and 'ambulance chasing' has received much negative publicity in the UK. There is now a fear that services could suffer because doctors are more worried about being accused of medical negligence rather than actually delivering patient care.

The medical defence organisation MDDUS has seen a big increase in calls from doctors to its advice lines last year, as a number of high profile negligence cases have raised concerns amongst doctors who seem to be more alert to risk areas within their normal working practice.

Doctors more worried about being sued

It seems that doctors in the UK are now more worried about being sued than ever before. The team of advisers at MDDUS handled almost 10,000 calls in 2010, up 7% from the previous year.

Health campaigners will often argue that doctors should be held accountable for their actions if there are questions regarding medical negligence, but with the increase in cases where the healthcare industry has been sued for millions of pounds there are concerns that people are being encouraged to sue in inappropriate circumstances. The question is whether there are already sufficient resources for patients to be compensated for medical negligence or whether the taxpayer should be expected to pay an increasing amount in what has become in the opinion of many a culture of compensation.

Certainly the advantages of doctors becoming 'risk aware' is that they can be more proactive in their work, and in cases of so called 'poor medical practice' patients can be encouraged to speak up.

The costs of each claim can be sizeably increased by the delays of the NHSLA in dealing with the claims made against the NHS. Often claims where doctors have clearly been negligent are fought right until the day before court. Therefore, it is not only compensation awards but also the time spent dealing with cases, court and legal costs, and associated costs that then become a burden on the NHS and ultimately the taxpayer due to these delays.

Confidentiality

Other issues raised with MDDUS were those of confidentiality, with the publication of the General Medical Council's new guidance on confidentiality. This has all added to the stress of many doctors and with more pressure than ever to tighten budgets and reforms to the NHS on their way, it could be said that doctors are becoming more risk aware as the threat of being sued is regularly implied in media coverage of high profile cases of medical negligence.

Whilst doctors should be free to work without a threat of unreasonable legal threats, this should not be to the disadvantage of patients who may experience medical negligence and therefore have a right to expect their case to be heard, and any compensation to help them recover and cover their costs should be paid.

A US-style doctor compensation culture would not be popular in the UK, and with increasing concerns over lawyers who work on a no-win no-fee basis, many are hoping Government will resolve these issues in a satisfactory way but without punishing innocent medical negligence victims or letting standards of health care drop further still.