The Impatient Patient and the Unreceptive Receptionist: Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018] UKSC 50.



Purshouse, Craig ORCID: 0000-0002-0432-119X
(2019) The Impatient Patient and the Unreceptive Receptionist: Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018] UKSC 50. Medical law review, 27 (2). pp. 318-329.

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Abstract

In Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018] UKSC 50, the Supreme Court held that a hospital receptionist's misleading statement about A&E waiting times constituted a breach of duty and that the claimant's decision, based on this misinformation, to leave the hospital did not break the chain of causation when he was left paralysed as a result of a head injury. In this commentary, I argue that while the Supreme Court's treatment of duty of care and breach is, for the most part, a model of doctrinal clarity, its treatment of the causation issue is problematic as it elides the test of whether there has been a break in the chain of causation with that for remoteness. I then comment on the Supreme Court's construction of the patient in medical negligence cases.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Humans, Brain Damage, Chronic, Hematoma, Epidural, Cranial, Paralysis, Communication, Decision Making, Causality, Liability, Legal, Malpractice, Medical Receptionists, Inpatients, Emergency Service, Hospital, Health Services, Standard of Care, United Kingdom
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 07 Jun 2021 15:50
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2024 01:37
DOI: 10.1093/medlaw/fwy042
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3125450