When you seek medical treatment, you place a great deal of trust in the professionals responsible for your care. You expect them to act competently, to listen to your concerns, and to make decisions that protect your health. When that trust is not upheld, it may amount to what the law calls a breach of duty.
A breach of duty occurs when a healthcare professional fails to meet the standard of care that is expected of them. In simple terms, it means that the treatment you received fell below what a reasonably skilled and competent professional would have done in the same situation. This is not about expecting perfection, but about ensuring that you were treated in a way that meets acceptable medical standards.
To understand whether there has been a breach, the law looks at how other responsible professionals in the same field would have acted. If your treatment would not be supported by a reasonable body of medical opinion, it may be considered negligent. This is often referred to as the Bolam principle, and it plays a key role in assessing whether your care was appropriate.
A breach of duty can happen in many ways, and it often affects you more directly than you might first realise. It could involve a delay in diagnosing your condition, meaning you lost valuable time for treatment. It could be a failure to carry out necessary tests, a misinterpretation of results, or even a mistake during surgery. It may also arise where you were not properly informed of the risks of a procedure, leaving you unable to make a fully informed decision about your care.
What matters is how that failure impacted you. You may have experienced additional pain, a worsening condition, or the need for further treatment that could have been avoided. In some cases, the effects can be long-term, affecting your quality of life, your ability to work, or your emotional wellbeing.
You need to know that not every poor outcome is the result of a breach of duty. Medicine is not an exact science, and complications can occur even when care is appropriate. However, if something about your treatment does not feel right, or if you believe your care fell below acceptable standards, it is reasonable for you to question it.
Understanding breach of duty allows you to recognise when your care may not have met the level you were entitled to expect. It is about recognising that you have rights as a patient and that healthcare professionals are accountable for the decisions they make.
Ultimately, this concept exists to protect you. It ensures that standards are maintained within the medical profession and that, if those standards are not met, you have a route to seek answers and, where appropriate, compensation.
If you have a medical negligence claim, contact Mark Irlam on 01756 799000 or m.irlam@mewiessolicitors.co.uk