Patients’ lobby demands legal duty to report medical errors

DOCTORS and hospitals should be legally obliged to tell the truth to patients and their families when a medical accident occurs, according to a new lobby group.

The advocacy group Medical Injuries Alliance (MIA) said Department of Health estimates indicate that up to 160,000 people may be injured every year as a result of medical accidents.

MIA also said HSE and hospital data suggests that thousands of people die prematurely because they are not examined in emergency departments on time.

Solicitor and MIA chairman Michael Boylan said patients and families faced a “David and Goliath” battle against hospitals and doctors.

“Medical accidents can have an absolutely devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people, with life-long consequences and huge trauma.

“But the problem of evasiveness, lack of honesty and candour by healthcare professionals adds enormously to the distress of families, the length of time it takes for cases to be resolved and increases in expense.”

Mr Boylan said that after working more than 25 years in the area, his experience was that the default position in the medical profession was one of “circling the wagons”, even in cases of obvious error.

“I find routinely they will deny, be evasive and sometimes be downright untruthful.”

He said this was at odds with ethical guidelines issued by the Irish Medical Council.

“Paraphrasing, this states there is an ethical duty on doctors to be candid and honest with their patient when a medical accident occurs,” he said. “Unfortunately, there is no legal duty. There are no consequences for non-compliance.”

This is the top aim of MIA — which draws members from the legal profession, patients, their families and others — for a legal duty of candour on all medical professionals and administrators to reveal as early as possible when an accident occurs.

The group also wants:

- The medical profession in Ireland to provide objective clinical opinions for injured patients, thereby ending the practice of patients having to go to the expense and time in seeking overseas experts.

- Legal aid to be expanded to Medical Council hearings.

- Independent audits be carried out on hospitals following litigation to ensure lessons are learned.

Mr Boylan said St James’s Hospital in Dublin examined the outcomes of people who were not seen within the recommended guideline of six hours in emergency departments — one third of all patients — and found 100 died prematurely.

“Bear in mind St James’s is the best-performing A&E, so thousands of people are dying prematurely every year,” said Mr Boylan. “I can’t understand why there isn’t a public outcry at this.”

Bruce Antoniotti SC, MIA vice-chairman, said if duty of candour was introduced “into the psyche of medical professionals there would be less legal cases and less trauma for patients”.

- See:

patientfocus.ie

medicalinjuriesalliance.ie

medicalcouncil.ie

Botched surgery ‘felt like acid in my chest’

WHEN Christine Carroll woke up from “routine surgery”, she felt like acid had been poured into her chest.

Christine, from Kimmage in Dublin, went into an emergency department on May 30, 1996, with a collapsed lung.

The following morning, her consultant said he would perform keyhole surgery, which he had done 200 times before. She would have a few scars and would be out within days, she was told.

When she came round, she felt the “most hellish and unbearable pain”.

She later discovered an artery had been severed and blood had poured into her chest. Her chest had been sliced open, causing major damage to nerves and tissue.

“I was shown absolutely no remorse, no compassion and no concern for what had happened to me,” she said.

Only in 2006, when a spinal cord stimulator was inserted, did she say she experienced some form of pain relief.

She said she did not want to take litigation and only contacted solicitors in 1999. In 2002, the High Court ruled there was medical negligence, but the case was appealed.

A retrial was ordered, which was settled.

“I was caught up in the courts for two-and-a-half years,” she said. “I did not get justice or answers or adequate compensation and am facing a life sentence of pain.”

Christine called for operations to be video-recorded.