Bell v Alliance Medical Ltd, [2015] CSOH 34
Citation: Bell v Alliance Medical Ltd, [2015] CSOH 34
Rule of thumb 1: If you are cut in the course of a medical treatment, such as a surgery or a scan, and the medics fail to recognise the seriousness of the bleeding as an emergency, is this negligence? Yes, if there is a serious cut causing a lot of blood then medics are supposed to recognise that and take emergency measures, and failure to do so is an actionable negligence.
Rule of thumb 2: Can an employee be sued for damages they have caused their employer? Only if it is serious or wilful misconduct – accidental or reckless behaviour will not be enough to satisfy this test.
Judgment:
The basic facts of this case were that a radiographer, Bell, was carrying out a scan when in doing this she punctured an artery on a patient’s arm. The Court held that there was no negligence in this cut happening but the Court held that it was negligence for Bell not to recognise that this was a medical emergency and take the patient to accident and emergency with urgency. The patient successfully sued the employer, Alliance Medical Ltd, for this but the employer then sought damages for this from the employee, Bell. The radiographer was part of an association which had insurance, and it was held that the employee Bell could be sued for the damage caused to the patient. The Court in this case held that nowadays this could only be relied upon in the case of wilful misconduct or seriously reckless misconduct verging all but on wilful misconduct, ‘The rule in Lister should be restricted to those rare circumstances where the employee has been guilty of serious or wilful misconduct’, Lord Boyd.
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.