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QUEENS BENCH DIVISION
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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FAHIMA KHALID ( a child proceeding by her mother and litigation friend BAIRA KHALID) |
Claimant |
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- and - |
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BARNET & CHASE FARM HOSPITAL NHS TRUST |
Defendant |
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Mr Stephen Miller QC (instructed by Beachcroft LLP) for the defendant
Hearing dates: 17th 23rd, 26th January 2007
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Crown Copyright ©
His Honour Judge Grenfell:
"I would only add that a doctor who professes to exercise a special skill must exercise the ordinary skill of his speciality. Differences of opinion and practice exist, and will always exist, in the medical as in other professions. There is seldom any one answer exclusive of all others to problems of professional judgment. A court may prefer one body of opinion to the other: but that is no basis for a conclusion of negligence."
.
"I have to say that a judge's "preference" for one body of distinguished professional opinion to another also professionally distinguished is not sufficient to establish negligence in a practitioner whose actions have received the seal of approval of those whose opinions, truthfully expressed, honestly held, were not preferred. If this was the real reason for the judge's finding, he erred in law even though elsewhere in his judgment he stated the law correctly. For in the realm of diagnosis and treatment negligence is not established by preferring one respectable body of professional opinion to another. Failure to exercise the ordinary skill of a doctor (in the appropriate speciality, if he be a specialist) is necessary."
"For trial of labour. Once in established labour i.e regular contractions and cervical effacement from 3 cms dilatation, must have 2-hourly vaginal examinations. Can have syntocinon as per primips regimen. However, must progress 1 cm with Syntocinon. If not, for Caesarean Section
"Plan: Assess vaginally on 28/10. If cervix closed, for Caesarean Section after discussion with mother ."
"Discussed options → FBC
→ C/S
Keen on NVD (therefore) FBS
+ declined C/S
3 x samples "
"The existence of such a duty is not in doubt. Nor is its rationale: to enable adult patients of sound mind to make for themselves decisions intimately affecting their own lives and bodies."
"In a case where it is being alleged that a plaintiff has been deprived of the opportunity to make a proper decision as to what course he or she should take in relation to treatment, it seems to me to be the law, as indicated in the cases to which I have just referred, that if there is a significant risk which would affect the judgment of a reasonable patient, then in the normal course it is the responsibility of a doctor to inform the patient of that significant risk, if the information is needed so that the patient can determine for him or herself as to what course he or she should adopt."
"I start with the proposition that the law which imposed the duty to warn on the doctor has at its heart the right of the patient to make an informed choice as to whether, and if so when and by whom, to be operated on."