When a Connecticut resident is unwell and needs medical attention, he or she goes to a doctor and expects the medical professional to exercise their duty of care when attending to them. But what is this duty of care-what does this term mean and what does it entail?
Firstly, it is important to know that doctors owe a duty of care only to their patients. Once this parent-physician relationship is established, the doctor’s duty is to take care of them according to the degree of skill, care and diligence that they possess or possessed by reasonably competent physicians in the same or similar circumstances. The circumstances refer to the area of medicine the doctor practices in, the locality the doctor practices in and the accepted practices there and the exigent circumstances surrounding the medical treatment. Skill and expertise often have to be established with the help of expert testimony from other physicians who have similar training and experience as the doctor in question.
The doctor’s duty of care comes in to play when someone is accusing the doctor of taking substandard care of him or her. This means if someone comes away from the hospital with a worsened condition, a personal injury or as a victim of a doctor’s error, they would need to demonstrate their doctor breached the duty of care owed to them.
Medical malpractice is often difficult to prove and one of the reasons is because it is difficult to find doctors to provide expert testimony against another doctor. Experienced attorneys often known various tactics to try to get them to cooperate and it might be beneficial to consult one for more guidance on how to hold a doctor responsible for their medical errors.
