Bolam V. Friern Hospital

Doctors are specialist with skills and are bound to exercise a standard of care that is required by a professional. Based on Hippocratic Oath, doctors always treat their patients with the best treatment and also preserve patient’s privacy. However, professionals that are in the medical line are being increasingly sued for negligence.

On 29th December 2006, the test for medical negligence had been accepted by the Courts in Malaysia . It was generally known as the Bolam Test. This principle was derived from the case of Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee . Justice McNair stated that if the doctor is acting in accordance with the skills or practices that are accepted by a body or responsible medical men that are skilled in that particular

Friern Hospital is a mental health institution. Mr. Bolam has consented to undergo the electro-convulsive treatment. However, at that time, no muscle relaxant was given and his body was not restrained. Before the procedure stopped, he was thrashing about violently and suffered from some genuine wounds such as fractures of the acetabula. Hence, a legal suit was done against the hospital by Mr. Bolam. He claimed that the doctor had breached the standard of care in providing the treatment and argued that they were negligent for (i) not giving him relaxants (ii) not controlling him, and (iii) not giving him warning about the risks. In this case, a standard of care that will be essential to a doctor has been developed by Mr Justice McNair, that is, so long as a medical professional does not breach his or her duty of care, he or she would not be found guilty under medical malpractice. If a medical practice is acknowledged by a group of professionals, then it can be uttered that the practitioners have fulfilled the standard of care in law and Bolam test is eventually satisfied. Thus, it can be said that the standard of care in law has been resolved by Bolam test

In this case, the claimant claimed damages for negligence following the death of his wife in the hospital for which the defendant NHS Trust was responsible. He contended that if the deceased’s peripheral leg pulses is being test by palpation, she would not have died. The court relied on the evidence form the experts of the defendant. It was shown that the claimant was unable to prove that there is a negligent on the part of the doctor, even if she had been, the claimant could not demonstrate that it would have led to a successful surgical intervention in