Medico-legal litigation

The editorial ‘Prosecute now, ask questions later’ (March 19) caught my attention. As a medical practitioner with 30 years’ experience in a high-risk discipline, I found this thought disturbing.

Medico-legal litigation is one of the major challenges facing our society as I write and, no, it is not only a challenge for the medical profession but society as a whole.

For any process not functioning fairly and equitably, there needs to be in place a system of ‘checks and balances’ which ensures that only the appropriate cases are brought to court.

This is especially so in cases where criminal negligence is being claimed. In civil suits, most practitioners come to terms with the turn of events and, after some time, can continue to live their lives and serve their patients with some serenity. This is especially so since, as members of the EU, all healthcare professionals are obliged to be insured against such events.

Criminal cases are a different matter altogether. Although few, we have had our fair share of cases involving an appendix, an artery rather than a vein and, very recently, a number of paediatricians were found not guilty in another sad case. These doctors’ lives are thrown up in the air and only a very strong sense of resolve will avoid sense of despair.

So, going back to the editorial, the process needs to have some scrutiny along the way, from someone making a report at a police station and the case ending up in the courts of justice.

In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, this is provided for by the Office of the Coroner (Wikipedia: a government official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquiry into the manner or cause of death). This person is usually a specialist judge. This office was established during medieval times (during the reign of King Richard I, to be exact) and has remained in existence ever since. Clearly, this means that it is serving an important purpose.

The concept of having some degree of scrutiny over what proceeds to the court of justice or not is by no means a protectionist move towards doctors. Society should concern itself with this issue as it is a very important factor affecting recruitment into these high-risk medico-legal disciplines.

Doctors working in these disciplines are under a lot of pressure 24/7. They need to know that, if they do their job well and follow protocols assiduously, they will not end up in court because of an unfortunate outcome.

Only in this way can we hope to have the best brains looking after ourselves and our dear ones.

MARK FORMOSA, consultant gynaecologist – Sliema their falling into a