Cheluvappa Rajkumar, Selvendran Selwyn
Australian Catholic University, Watson, ACT, 2602, Australia.
Department of Surgery, St George Hospital, Kogarah, NSW, 2217, Australia.
Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2020 Jul 17;57:205-211. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2020.07.017. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Law entails precedent-based common law and parliamentary-legislation-based statutory law. Australian courts recognise civil wrongs, called torts. The most common tort worldwide is negligence. The first aim of the paper is to educate the Australian nursing community about medicolegal issues, statutes, important cases, legal applications, and negligence statistics pertaining to clinical practice. The second aim is to determine whether medicolegal negligence claim-numbers are commensurate with recorded statistics on adverse events. The third aim is to determine and discuss preventative approaches to minimise culpability.
Relevant searches were done using Pubmed, Google Scholar, and Austlii. Data, negligence legislation, key cases, and law processes were collated and analysed based on court decision citations, legal impact, and relationships between legislation application and case law. Although New South Wales legislation was used throughout this paper, parallel statutes exist across Australian jurisdictions.
The basics of the civil tort offence of negligence are explained with step-by-step explanations. Key judgments and application of legislation in key medical negligence cases are discussed. Relevant medicolegal issues and negligence statistics are discussed. The civil tort of negligence is elaborately discussed, step-by-step, with relevant Common Law and legislation relevant to NSW. The watershed cases of Hadiza Bawa-Garba and Nurse Amaro are summarised with the ramifications for doctors and nurses. Expedient strategies to assist doctors and nurses in minimising unlawful action are discussed.
Adverse medical events are high in Australia. However, new claims are decreasing. Negligence claim-numbers are disproportionate to statistics on adverse events. The Hadiza Bawa-Garba and Nurse Amaro cases have opened a legal can of worms with manifold negative ramifications for the nursing community.
法律包括基于先例的普通法和基于议会立法的成文法。澳大利亚法院认可民事侵权行为，即侵权之债。全球最常见的侵权行为是过失侵权。本文的首要目的是向澳大利亚护理界普及与临床实践相关的法医学问题、法规、重要案例、法律应用及过失侵权统计数据。第二个目的是确定法医学过失侵权索赔数量是否与不良事件记录统计数据相符。第三个目的是确定并讨论将罪责降至最低的预防方法。
使用PubMed、谷歌学术和澳大利亚法律信息网（Austlii）进行了相关检索。根据法院判决引用、法律影响以及法规应用与判例法之间的关系，对数据、过失侵权立法、关键案例和法律程序进行了整理和分析。尽管本文通篇使用了新南威尔士州的立法，但澳大利亚各司法管辖区均有类似法规。
逐步解释了过失侵权这一民事侵权罪行的基本要点。讨论了关键医疗过失案例中的关键判决及法规应用。探讨了相关法医学问题和过失侵权统计数据。结合新南威尔士州相关的普通法和法规，逐步详细讨论了过失侵权这一民事侵权行为。总结了哈迪扎·巴瓦-加尔巴案和阿马罗护士案这两个具有分水岭意义的案例及其对医生和护士的影响。讨论了协助医生和护士尽量减少违法行为的权宜策略。
澳大利亚的不良医疗事件发生率很高。然而，新的索赔案件正在减少。过失侵权索赔数量与不良事件统计数据不成比例。哈迪扎·巴瓦-加尔巴案和阿马罗护士案引发了一系列法律问题，给护理界带来了诸多负面影响。
