Jel Coward wrote:
>
>
>
> I fell apart - but managed to keep working - just. I hated patients for ages and wondered where all my good feelings of helping people, and
> being appreciated for doing my best had gone.
>
> I too dreaded every letter - and that fear still lurks deep down.
> The Americans seem to treat this as a matter of course - and from what I hear don't fall apart with every legal letter that arrives. Any
> comments from across the pond?
>
I think it depends on the exposure - an OB consultant in Miami being
involved in 1 or 2 suits per year (and paying US$ 160K+ in malpractice
insurance) might become inured to suits as a matter of survival. The
rural GP - no, for the same reasons you enumerated.
My father was not sued in 49 years of practice, nor I in 20. I don't
know many of my colleagues who were that fortunate. I have heard that HMG
is considering introducing the contingency system of paying lawyers there
'to enable the poor to have their day in court'. Resist this at all
costs. The 'poor' with a solid case of injury from malpractice will not
lack solicitors (we have legal aid to provide them) and the lawyers,
lacking the potential for 30-40% of any settlement, will be less likely
to blanket the airwaves with ads ("If you think your doctor may have
failed to diagnose or treat your condition properly, call us toll free
for a free consultation...").
The fact that even with sympathetic juries ("Well, the doctor doesn't
have to pay anyway...his insurance will take care of it...") about 85% of
the cases that go to trial are decided for the doctor gives some
indication of the number of meritless cases filed. (The hope of the
lawyers is often to sue for 5 million, then settle quickly out of court
for 50k "to save everyone trouble and embarrasment..." , figuring that
the insurance company will spend more for a protracted fight and would
as soon be out quickly and cheaply).
I will forswear the next 15,000 words I am tempted to write....
Philip G. Dunlap, D.O., MPH, MPM, PhD.
Pew Doctoral Fellow, Heller School, Brandeis University
4 Bailey Hill Road
Natick, MA, 01760, USA
[log in to unmask]
(508) 650-9097
(508) 650-9152 - fax
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