A study of UK doctors was done to understand their aversion to litigation. Doctors fearing the threat of prosecution are avoiding high-risk procedures and patients who could be denied life-saving treatment as a result, a survey suggests. The poll, carried out for Doctors and Manslaughter, found 86% of UK physicians who responded said that they had adopted “a more defensive style”. Defensive medicine is where doctors recommend a test or treatment with the priority being to avoid litigation rather than the patient’s best interests.
An example would be declining to carry out a procedure with a relatively low success rate, even if it represents the patient’s only hope of medium to long-term survival. Almost half of doctors (48%) said the possibility of prosecution meant they were more likely to avoid high-risk patients, while 70% said it would lead to more mistakes being hidden. The results…
