Unethical v. Professional Misconduct v. Medical Negligence

Moral Judgement v. Diciplinary Action v. Actionable Tort

Unethical
ADCDE
Autonomy
Beneficial
Confidentiality
Do no harm
Equity

Professional Misconduct
"The definition of misconduct in a professional respect can be broadly defined as if a medical practitioner in the pursuit of his/her profession has done something which will be reasonably regarded as disgraceful, unethical or dishonourable by his/her professional colleges of good repute and competency, then it is open to the Medical Council, if that be shown, to say that he/she has been guilty of professional misconduct."

Medical Negligence
Breach
of a duty of care
causing damage
which is not too remote

Case 1
Amoxil was given by a doctor to a patient who had told the nurse that she was sensitive to penicillin. The patient then developed drug reaction which was not serious and recovered. The doctor claimed that by some unknown reasons there was a breakdown in communication between the paper record and the computer record. Thus she did not realise that the said patient was allergy to penicillin.
Point of argument: failure of the record keeping system was not capable of constituting an allegation of professional misconduct.
(Dr. Cheung Sau Yi v. HKMC)

Case 2
A 2 year old boy was admitted to hospital suffering from breathing difficulties and was kept under observation. His condition deteriorated and on two occasions a nurse contacted the doctor in charge, asking her to attend, but she failed to do so. The child subsequently suffered cardiac arrest leading to brain damage. The doctor had clearly been negligent in failing to attend, but the doctor argued that her non-attendance had not caused the child's death. She maintained that, given the child's symptoms, even if she had attended and examined the child, she would not have taken any action, but would have left the child for a further period of observation.
(Bolitho v. City and Hankney Health Authority)