Litigation

The law in relation to clinical practice is specialised and complex. Most practitioners have a rudimentary understanding of the basic concepts. This chapter explores the principles of duty of care, breach and causation, and how-using case law-they are applied to neonatal care. It considers the roles and responsibilities of the practitioner and the organisation in providing standards of care that are supportable in the current clinical governance and medicolegal climate. The problems facing practitioners who find themselves involved in a case many years after the actual clinical events are also discussed, and some risk management suggestions are made. Detailed and good-quality published data on the extent and nature of neonatal cases is lacking in the UK but should be improved by the changes that have occurred following the establishment of the National Health Service Litigation Authority. Finally, consideration is given to the difficulties parents, practitioners and experts can face in dealing with information and expectations in adverse clinical outcomes when litigation is inevitable.