A Duty of Care
What duty of care do you have for your patients? We talk a lot about duty. It is embedded in our daily conversations. We talk about ‘off-duty’, we enquire when staff are ‘on duty’ or on a ‘duty roster’. It has become part of our everyday vocabulary, but failing to provide a duty of care is the most common reason for doctors to be sued for negligence. The law of negligence seeks to ensure that as individuals, we are responsible for both our actions and our inactions.