Clinical Guidelines and the Law of Medical Negligence

Edited by Jo Samanta, Emeritus Professor, Law School, De Montfort University, Leicester and Ash Samanta, Emeritus Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist, University Hospitals of Leicester and Lecturer in Medical Law, Law School, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

‘The most detailed and rich consideration of the legal status of national and local clinical guidelines available. The volume tackles fundamental legal and ethical questions, concerning the role of healthcare instruments which claim a basis in robust development processes and scientific data: do guidelines legitimately underpin ‘guidance’ or ‘instructions’; how do - and should - they influence courts, in differing jurisdictions, when deciding legal standards of care; and what are the legal implications of practitioners’ adhering to, or departing from, clinical guidelines? In keeping with a governance tool that has ramified throughout the medical world, the editors, Jo and Ash Samanta, recognise the extraordinary global reach of guidelines and have assembled an array of international scholars and legal and medical analysts, to critically interrogate this trans-national legal nexus. Teeming with analysis of the key legal principles and cases, this collection offers the most expansive and authoritative treatment of the subject.’

• Contents:Foreword xPreface xiiIntroduction: clinical guidelines and the law of medical negligence 1Ash Samanta and Jo Samanta1 The early usage of clinical guidelines in medicalnegligence litigation: an Anglo-American perspective 12Ash Samanta and Jo Samanta2 Reliance on clinical guidelines in contemporary negligencelitigation in the UK: influential or determinative? 52Rob Heywood3 Medical guidelines in South African courts: exploring theirrole in medical negligence matters 80Camilla Pickles4 Fitness to practice tribunals in the UK and the Netherlands:the construction of (para)medical competence and the useof evidence-based guidelines 112Friso Johannes Jansen5 The interface between clinical guidelines and health care ethics 143Marwan Habiba6 A barrister’s experience of the use of clinical guidelines inclinical negligence litigation 175Pritesh Rathod7 The role of guidelines and protocols in clinical negligencelitigation: a solicitor’s viewpoint 199Laurence Vick8 Evidence-based medicine, clinical guidelines,trustworthiness and safe care in anaesthetics 228Rebecca Parrott and Debashish Dutta9 Clinical guidelines in trauma and orthopaedic surgery 252Simon Britten10 A global perspective of the use of clinical guidelines inmedical negligence litigation 281Jo Samanta and Ash SamantaConclusion: clinical guidelines and the law of medical negligence 322Ash Samanta and Jo SamantaIndex 341