Legal and Ethical Implications in Healthcare Practice in Singapore

Running head: HEALTH AND ETHICS
HEALTH AND ETHICS
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1HEALTH AND ETHICS
Introduction
In the current essay a detailed analysis has been done on the basis of the legal and ethical
implications in the healthcare practice in Singapore. The analysis of these legal and ethical issues
has been done with relation to a case study mentioned. The discussion has been further supported
with related legislation, professional codes, practice standards and case laws where applicable. In
the given case it was seen that the patient was an 80 year old suffering from diabetes, chronic
venous ulcer and hernia. It is further seen that the patient, Hetty, is pale, lethargic and confused
most of the time and has a slightly elevated temperature. Although she does not remember
anything she consents to her hernia repair surgery to Dr Lin. Even though Hetty did not
remember why she was in the hospital yet Dr Lin was seen to be reassuring Hetty’s husband and
takes her to surgery. Few days after the surgery, Hetty died because of the post-operative
infection and sepsis.
Legal Issues
In the case it can be seen that Dr Lin could be sued for his breach of duty of care towards
Hetty under the law of tort of negligence. Negligence under the common law of torts can be
defined as the legal wrong that a person suffers because of the failure of another person to be
taking proper care in any act or omission which could have been reasonably foreseen (Deakin &
Markesinis, 2019). The elements of negligence include- duty of care, breach of the duty,
causation and harm. For a successful claim in negligence the plaintiff needs to prove the
existence of these 4 elements.

2HEALTH AND ETHICS
Medical negligence can be defined as the failure of any healthcare professional for
exercising a standard of care that would be reasonably acceptable in medical skill or knowledge
that results in injury, death, damage or loss (Amirthalingam, 2017). In the case Bolam v Friern
Hospital Management Committee the general rules of the assessment of the proper standards of
reasonable care in indications of negligence that involve medical skills of the professionals have
been laid down. In the case Hii Chii Kok v Ooi Peng Jin London Lucien and another [2017] the
Bolam test, which could be seen to discuss the contentious aspects of medical negligence
categorized in three aspects- diagnosis, advice and treatment, had been rejected for being an
applicable legal test for the adjudication of the standard of care that can be held appropriate for
any medical practitioner. The case is seen as ruling a new 3-stage legal test that is patient-centric.
As per the decision of the court in the Hii Chii Kok v Lonodn Lucien Ooi it can be seen that the
diagnosis and the treatment stated in the Bolam test should be remaining same, however, in the
advice there is a new 3-stage test applicable. In the first stage the medical practitioner is required
to be assessing whether the information provided by the patient is sufficient by the perspective of
the patient. The second stage of the test as per the court is to enquire whether the doctor has in
his possession all the relevant information. The final stage in this test is to assess from the
doctor’s perspective whether information that has been demonstrated by the patient could be
seen as relevant a material and it is the burden of the doctor for justifying the reason for
withholding the information from the patient.
Applying the rules of the cases Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee and Hii Chii
Kok v Lonodn Lucien Ooi, can be seen that the standard of proof that Adam, Sue and Brian need
to establish for a successful claim of negligence are- there was a doctor patient relationship
existing between the parties, the Doctor had been negligent of his duties, the injury was caused to