UK Supreme Court restricts scope of Montgomery duty of care to patients

The UK Supreme Court has delivered an important judgment clarifying a doctor’s duty to discuss possible alternatives when offering a patient treatment.1The ruling by five justices in the UK’s highest court will reassure doctors that they need not discuss every possible treatment option to avoid a finding of negligence against them. It clarifies the 2015 Supreme Court judgment in the Montgomery case, which established that a doctor must “take reasonable care to ensure that the patient is aware of any material risks involved in any recommended treatment, and of any reasonable alternative or variant treatments.”The BMA and the General Medical Council intervened in the case to present arguments, for fear that the court would widen the duty laid down in Montgomery. But the court has restricted the duty, ruling that even if a particular alternative treatment would be considered reasonable by some doctors, a doctor will not be negligent if…
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