FAQ / Cautionary Tales

Would you know what to do if...?

Cautionary tale 1

You are the manager of a day surgery. A 17yr old patient following a general anaesthetic decides he want to drive himself home alone. He admits he did not have an escort although this was confirmed on both the admission form and verbally. You are concerned he is putting himself and others in danger. What would you do?

Cautionary tale 2

A mother is visiting her adult daughter who has just given birth in hospital. One of the nursing staff offers both the mother and the adult daughter a cup of coffee. Unfortunately the nurse spilt the coffee over both the mother and daughter and burnt them. Do you know that the mother and daughter can sue the hospital and one policy would cover the mother and not the daughter and one would cover the daughter and not the mother? Do you know which is which and does your facility have both? If the coffee also burnt the nurse too she would be able to claim under a third policy. Do you know which policy this one is??

Cautionary tale 3

You are the manager of a Private Hospital. On your proposal form you declare you are not aware of any circumstances that could lead to a claim. You make enquiries amongst your managers who confirm they are unaware of any circumstances that could lead to a claim. The insurance company accepts your proposal and issues the policy. A week later you receive a writ from a solicitor on behalf of a patient. You look into the circumstances of the writ and find one of your ENs was aware of the incident but didn't report it to you. Do you know if your insurance can refuse to attend to the claim?

Cautionary tale 4

You are a general practioner. You are the GP to a family. One member of the family has a full blood test. The results indicate they have HIV/AIDS. They ask you not to tell their partner but you know they are having unprotected sex. What duty do you owe to the patient and their partner who is also a patient of yours? Do you tell or not?

Cautionary tale 5

You are the manager of a psychiatric hospital. One of your patients tells you that another patient is going to murder his partner when he gets out on overnight leave. You are not sure if you are being told the truth. What do you do bearing in mind privacy issues and also if you are being told the truth you could prevent a murder. Do you call the police?

Cautionary tale 6

During a procedure under general anaesthetic there is an incident which is very short term failure of the anaesthetic machine. The patient is deprived of oxygen for less than a minute. Upon recovery and during follow up the patient asks did everything go off as planned. The patient in your opinion has made a full recovery. Do you tell them about the failure of the anaesthetic machine and leave yourself open to a potential claim?

Cautionary tale 7

You are the DON of a private hospital. There is an emergency operation which is being conducted late in the evening. The surgeon attends but you are certain you can smell alcohol on his breath. He appears to be otherwise competent. What do you do?