Medical Responsibility in a Hospital Practice

KQ Yeo
Correspondence: K Q Yeo

ABSTRACT
The complex legal relationships between hospitals, doctors and paramedical staff lead to issues which the court will find difficult to resolve. However, certain trends have emerged in modern medicine: 1) There is a need to provide competent care based on a national standard. 2) Competent care is no longer predicated on 'locality rules'. The state has to intervene with statutes and regulations to ensure that a 'standard' of practice is established in hospitals. 3) The hospital has both a vicarious as well as an inherent duty of care (corporate obligation) to its patients. 4) The statutory regulations result in doctors being involved directly in setting of standards. This brings a separate liability upon the doctors independent of their professional liability. 5) There is a demand not only for establishing initial standards of care, but for continuous monitoring of these standards and proactive measures to ensure that they are updated.

Singapore Med J 2000; 41(2): 94-96