TRAINING AND TALKS
Talk on Doctor's Duty of Care - Singapore Courts Adopts a New Test There has been an expression of interest in the adoption of a new legal test, the modified Montgomery Test, in Singapore courts. As part of the Continuing Education Initiative under the Doctors’ MMI Programme, MOHH and JLT are proud to present a talk by renowned medico-legal specialist lawyer Kuah Boon Theng on CA 33/2016, a landmark decision delivered by the Singapore Court of Appeal on 12 May 2017 which sets out the new legal test to be adopted in determining the standard of care applicable to the provision of medical advice.
In brief, the law in Singapore has previously followed the principles established in the English decisions of Bolam and Bolitho, which collectively provided that a clinician will meet the requisite standard of care if he/she acted in accordance with the practices and views of a responsible body of medical professionals skilled in the same specialisation, subject to these practices and views also being logical.
The Singapore Court of Appeal has now taken a bold step in adopting (and adapting in part) the so-called Montgomery Test. This is seen by some as a move away from the ‘reasonable doctor’ to the ‘reasonable patient’ test. A central component of the test involves the evaluation of whether a reasonable person in the patient’s position would be likely to attach significance to the risk, or whether the doctor should reasonably be aware that the particular patient would be likely to attach significance to it.
Ms Kuah Boon Theng will share her thoughts on the above decision, and the impact it will have on the provision of medical advice in Singapore.
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