© 2004 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
MEDICOLEGAL BRIEFING
How to avoid being sued in clinical practice
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Gerard Panting
Medical Protection Society, 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G OPS, UK; gerard.panting{at}mps.org.uk
Challenges to clinical management are a fact of professional life. Every doctor must expect to become embroiled in complaints and claims from time to time and be prepared to justify why they managed a particular case in the way that they did. Good medical practice is defensible practice, which depends upon staying within the limits of your own expertise, keeping up to date and conducting audit, ensuring your administration is effective and that patients are not allowed to slip through the net, that you communicate effectively with patients, their carers and colleagues, and that medical records recall all salient facts relating to the patient.
If things go wrong, be open, investigate the facts, explain the situation fully to the patient, and do not be afraid to apologise.
Keywords: clinical negligence; medicolegal issues
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