Volume 194 - Issue 6
Perceived practice change in Australian doctors as a result of medicolegal concerns
Author: Louise M Nash
Med J Aust 2011; 194 (6): 325-326. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb02991.x
Published online: 21 March 2011
Published online: 21 March 2011
In reply: I agree with Grattan-Smith that current medicolegal processes have profoundly negative effects on doctors. I do not agree that my coauthors and I have “negativity” towards doctors and an allegiance to current medicolegal practice.
Our aim was to investigate the impact of medicolegal matters on Australian doctors — their emotional response and their practice changes.1,2 We have shown that doctors who have a current medicolegal matter have higher levels of psychiatric morbidity,2 and that most doctors believe they change how they practise due to medicolegal concerns — more so in the case of doctors who have experienced a medicolegal matter.1
Justice Ipp and colleagues,3 when reviewing the law of negligence for the Commonwealth of Australia in 2002 with the objective of limiting liability and damages arising from personal injury or death, made note of the lack of empirical evidence in the submissions they received. We have now provided some empirical evidence of medicolegal matters from the doctors’ perspective. If such a review were conducted now, I would suggest the current medicolegal systems are not good for patients, for doctors, or for the health system in general.
The evidence from our studies1,2 now allows a more informed conversation on this issue to take place.
References
- Nash LM, Walton MM, Daly MG, et al. Perceived practice change in Australian doctors as a result of medicolegal concerns. Med J Aust 2010; 193: 579-583.
- Nash LM, Kelly PJ, Daly MG, et al. Australian doctors’ involvement in medicolegal matters: a cross-sectional self-report study. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 436-440. 0_i1095849
- Ipp DA, Cane P, Sheldon D, Macintosh I. Review of the law of negligence: final report. September 2002. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2002. http://revofneg.treasury.gov.au/content/Report2/PDF/Law_Neg_Final.pdf (accessed Sep 2010).