Errors, Medicine and the Law

Alan Merry is a practising cardiac anaesthetist, whose research focuses on safety, and in particular, on reducing error, in anaesthesia. He was the co-founder and co-chair of the New Zealand Medical Law Reform Group, which contributed to the passing of the Crimes Amendment Act 1997 which redefined the threshold for criminal prosecution arising from negligently caused harm in New Zealand. He is author of a number of papers in medical and legal journals. He has developed a computer-based systems approach to reducing drug administration in anaesthesia (the IDAS) which applies many of the principles discussed in this book, and which is in use in several Auckland hospitals. Alexander McCall Smith has been involved in medico-legal issues for more than twenty years. He has lectured on the subject at universities throughout the world. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the United Kingdom, a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO, and the Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Journal. He is the author of a number of books in the areas of medical law and criminal law, including Law and Medical Ethics, 6th edition (with J. K. Mason and G. T. Laurie, 2002).

Introduction; 1. Accidents; 2. The human factor; 3. Errors; 4. Violations; 5. Negligence, recklessness and blame; 6. The standard of care; 7. Assessing the standard - the role of the expert witness; 8. Beyond blame: responding to the needs of the injured; 9. Conclusion.