What is medical negligence?

Medical treatment in Hong Kong is generally of high standard and every year millions of people go through both the public and private healthcare systems. Medical practitioners (doctors, surgeons, physiotherapists, psychologists, dentists, nurses and health care assistants) provide an invaluable service to us; however, there can be times when even the highest trained medical professionals make mistakes.

Medical negligence is professional negligence resulting from an act or omission on the part of a health care provider in which the care provided deviates from accepted standards of medical practice and causes injury or death to the patient. These cases may lead to claims for compensation due to medical negligence. A person claiming medical negligence must suffer some real harm that has been caused by substandard level of medical care. The damage suffered must be harm that a patient would not have experienced if a medical professional or institution had acted properly and not acted negligently.

It is important to note that suing for medical negligence is not a tool to be used by those who are dissatisfied with the results of their medical care. Generally, you cannot claim that a medical professional has been negligent simply because the medical professional failed to cure a condition.