What is the Bolam standard of care?

A test that arose from English tort law, which is used to assess medical negligence. Bolam holds that the law imposes a duty of care between a doctor and his patient, but the standard of that care is a matter of medical judgement. Bolam has been subsequently modified by the Bolitho test (see there).

What is Bolam and Bolitho?

Bolam sets out that a doctor is not negligent if they have acted in accordance with a responsible body of opinion. Bolitho narrowed the scope of the test, stating that the court must be satisfied that the body of opinion relied upon has a logical basis. That would be an unlikely sea change in clinical negligence.

Is Bolam still good law?

The Bolam test The standard of care for professionals is comparison to their professional peers. The test was formulated in the case of Bolam which, despite dating back to 1957, remains good law. The clinician is judged in accordance with the standards of the reasonably competent professional in their field.

Is Bolam test still applicable?

With regard to the standard of care for diagnosis or treatment, the Bolam test still applies, subject to qualifications as decided by the House of Lords in Bolitho.”

What is the Bolam test used for?

The Bolam test is the standard test that is used to establish whether the duty of care has been breached.

How is a breach of duty of care assessed?

In assessing whether the defendant has breached the duty of care, the court will normally use the reasonable person test ie what would the reasonable person have done, or not done, in the circumstances of this particular incident.

What is the Bolitho test in law?

A legal test that modified the 1957 Bolam test, which the English courts had been using to determine medical negligence by a doctor or nurse. In Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority, 1997, Lord Browne-Wilkinson restricted the boundaries of Bolam, stating.

What is the Bolam test in law?

In other words, the Bolam test states that “If a doctor reaches the standard of a responsible body of medical opinion, he is not negligent”. Mr Bolam was a voluntary patient at mental health institution run by the Friern Hospital Management Committee.

Is the Bolam test is enough to determine negligence?

A court may prefer one body of medical opinion to another, but that does not amount to a conclusion of clinical negligence. In practical terms, the effect of the Bolam test is that a finding of negligence is not made where the defendant doctor has acted in accordance with a responsible body of medical opinion.

Did Montgomery overrule Bolam?

Judgment in the appeal case of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board (Scotland) [2015] was handed down by the Supreme Court last week. It is now very clear following Montgomery that the Bolam test does not apply in consent cases. …

What is the test for clinical negligence?

For any legal action arising from negligence, it must be proven that: The medical practitioner owed a duty of care to the patient, and; That duty of care was breached, and; The patient suffered harm as a result of the breach.

What is an example of breach of duty of care?

A duty of care is breached when someone is injured because of the action (or in some cases, the lack of action) of another person when it was reasonably foreseeable that the action could cause injury, and a reasonable person in the same position would not have acted that way.

When to use Bolam and Bolitho in medical cases?

In the case of Brady, Mr Lewis considered the classic statements of Bolam and Bolitho and their respective application in ‘treatment cases’ – where a doctor recommends or undertakes a particular treatment or further diagnostic procedure.

How did medical professionals treat patients in Bolitho?

Medical professionals enjoyed unquestioning compliance from patients and were treated with great deference by society in general, including the judiciary. Hospital consultants were not accountable to hospital managers as they are today and clinical negligence litigation was in its infancy.

What was the outcome of Bolam v Friern Hospital?

The case of Bolam v Friern Hospital had established that professionals will not be in breach of their duty if they acted in accordance with practices accepted as proper by a responsible body of other medical professionals with relevant expertise.

What was the case Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority?

Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority [1998] AC 232. TORT – NEGLIGENCE – STANDARD OF CARE FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS – CAUSATION. Facts. A child was brought to a hospital suffering from breathing abnormalities. The doctor summoned to deal with the matter never received the summons due to a low battery on her bleep.