#clinical-negligence #negligence #tort

Whitehouse v Jordan [1980] 1 All ER 650

A senior registrar performed a caesarean section after unsuccessfully trying to deliver the child by forceps. He had pulled on the baby six times over a 25 minute period. The Court of Appeal reversed the trial judge’s decision of negligence. A distinction had to be made between an error of judgement and actual negligence. As Lord Fraser stated:

Merely to describe something as an error of judgement tells us nothing about whether it is negligent or not. The true position is that an error of judgement may, or may not, be negligent; it depends on the nature of the error. If it is one that would not have been made by a reasonably competent professional man professing to have the standard and type of skill that the defendant held himself out as having, and acting with ordinary care, then it is negligent. If, on the other hand, it is an error that a man with ordinary care might have made, then it is not negligence.