Negligence in the health care sector and the rights of victims

Personal injury laws cover accidental harm in medical treatments. Additionally, the health workers’ wellbeing is also the responsibility of the employer as due to numerous reasons, health workers can sustain injuries. Considering the risk of coronavirus, the working conditions of health workers has been more difficult. The health workers’ mental and bodily health should be provided by designing suitable and reasonable work schedules, assessing the risk factors and eliminating them and by providing sufficient medical protective equipment.

Medical professionals’ duty to perform treatment at acceptable standards

The standards set in medical treatments is of crucial importance as a lack of reasonable care can worsen the patient’s medical condition and result in permanent harm. Failing to comply with the obligatory procedures in any phase of treatment can interrupt the whole treatment process. Throughout the treatment, the same attention should be given to the patient’s needs. Almost every medical process starts with the diagnosis of the patient’s medical condition. A mistake made in the beginning by diagnosing the patient’s condition incorrectly will lead to deviation of the whole process.

Although mistakes can be made unintentionally, the purpose of the duty of care is to minimise the medical professional’s proneness to make mistake. Medical professionals are obliged to perform treatments just as other reasonable peer’s do. This means, the procedures specified in the medical standards should be followed as ignoring these have higher chances of complications.

The doctor’s duty of care

Medical professionals should administer treatment suitable for standards. Neglecting duties in medical professions can result in serious and incurable conditions. Throughout the treatment, the services that are to be provided to the patient should be of what duties specify. Ignoring compulsory procedures such as the evaluation of the patient’s medical history before proceeding with further treatment has chances to cause harm. For instance, the patient could be in ongoing drug therapy. Generally, an individual without a medical education is likely to be unknowledgeable about how chemicals react with each other. For this reason, it is the doctor’s duty to evaluate the medical condition, ongoing drug usage and the physical history of the patient before prescribing medications.

In every stage of treatment, the duty of care should be obeyed. Even the simplest omissions can be the cause of a major loss. Such as counselling the patient incorrectly. Great risks may be posed to the patient if medical attendants fail to perform their duties. In a dental operation, the patient’s respiratory system can be severely damaged due to the dentist’s negligence. In a surgical operation, the patient’s muscular and nervous systems may malfunction and irreversibly and permanently harm the patient.

Health worker rights and the duty of care of the employers

Under the workers compensation scheme, the health workers that sustain a loss due to bodily or emotional harm may be eligible for compensation. The employer’s duty is to sustain safety in the medical centre both for the patients and the medical professionals. It is fair to say that neglecting responsibilities to provide safety in a medical centre has a chance to result in more serious accidents. The employer’s contribution to the risk factors is considered negligence, as stated in the laws. Work-related emotional distress is more common in medical professions. This is a factor that negatively affects both the doctor’s and the patient’s safety.

Coronavirus infection poses an additional risk to health workers. Being in the front lines against the coronavirus can be a stressor for health workers. For this reason, applying suitable and nonhazardous work schedules for health workers, providing sufficient protective equipment and a safe work environment is requested by the laws.