Medical Malpractice
5. Doctor-Patient Relationships
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 12 Aug 2015
- In every doctor-patient relationship there exists a duty of care. The duty of care enforces a binding obligation on the medical practitioner to maintain a reasonable standard of care while providing treatment that carries foreseeable risks.
- Where a medical practitioner fails to meet that standard of care their action or inaction can constitute a breach of the duty and may give rise to legal remedies for the patient.
- In order to be able to demonstrate breach of the duty the patient must show that a doctor-patient relationship existed at the time of the alleged breach.
- Usually a doctor-patient relationship is easily established. A relationship will be deemed to exist any time a patient visits a doctor in a professional capacity to seek treatment.
- For example attending a doctor’s clinic or visiting a hospital are events that will give rise to a doctor-patient relationship.
- Establishing a doctor-patient relationship will be harder in situations where a patient sees a doctor in a casual or social setting and briefly mentions their symptoms to them for the purposes of seeking advice.
- Whether the advice given in such a setting will give rise to a doctor-patient relationship will depend on the individual factors of the case.
View more Information on Compensation & Insurance