References: [1955] SLT 213, [1955] ScotCS CSIH_2, 1955 SC 200, [1955-95] PNLR 1
Links: Bailii
Coram: Lord President Clyde
The pursuer had been injured when the hypodermic needle being used by the defender doctor broke in use. The pursuer said that the direction by the judge as to accepted practice for the use of such needles.
Held: The court considered the dangers in establishing simple medical standards to judge medical treatments: ‘In the realm of diagnosis and treatment there is ample scope for genuine difference of opinion and one man clearly is not negligent merely because his conclusion differs from that of other professional men . . The true test for establishing negligence in diagnosis or treatment on the part of the doctor is whether he has been proved to be guilty of such failure as no doctor of ordinary skill would be guilty of, if acting with ordinary care.’
This case is cited by:
- Cited – Penney and Others -v- East Kent Health Authority CA (Times 25-Nov-99, Gazette 08-Dec-99, [2000] PNLR 323, Bailii, [1999] EWCA Civ 3005)
A cervical smear screener could be liable in negligence if he failed to spot obvious abnormalities in a test result which indicated that further investigation was required. To say this is not to say that such screening tests were expected to achieve . . - Adopted – Maynard -v- West Midlands Regional Health Authority HL ([1985] 1 WLR 685, [1985] 1 All ER 635)
The test of professional negligence is the standard of the ordinary skilled man exercising and professing to have that special skill. Lord Scarman said: ‘a doctor who professes to exercise a special skill must exercise the ordinary skill must . . - Cited – Montgomery -v- Lanarkshire Health Board SC (Bailii, [2015] UKSC 11, Bailii Summary, UKSC 2013/0136, SC Summary, SC)
The pursuer claimed that her obstetrician had been negligent, after her son suffered severe injury at birth. The baby faced a birth with shoulder dystocia – the inabillity of the shoulders to pass through the pelvis. The consultant considered that a . .