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ter and the Letby case
Section 12.1 of the Criminal Code states : “ This Code applies to bodies corporate in the same way as it applies to individuals ” and that a “ body corporate may be found guilty of any offence , including one punishable by imprisonment ”.
To my knowledge , no hospital , public or private , has faced a charge under Section 12.1 .
I remember mentioning to a senior official in a private hospital that I had concerns about a doctor working there , and the response was , “ Yes , I ’ ve heard about those concerns , but that doctor is a high user of this hospital .”
My jaw , I think visibly , dropped . Was that not a negligent response ?
The important question for me is , if hospitals only allow doctors who are accredited to work in their hospitals , are hospitals exposed to corporate liability extending to corporate manslaughter charges when a patient dies under the care of an accredited doctor whose alleged incompetence had already been reported to the hospital ?
In the best tradition of the legal profession , I ’ d say — possibly .
I ’ m suggesting possibly , rather than probably , because it is a more legally neutral term . My gut tells me the answer is yes .
We are very familiar with seeing problems arising from negligent doctors dealt with in civil courts or by registration bodies , or both . But given that so many serious failures in the context of healthcare are fuelled by wider
Dr Jayant Patel ( centre ) attending the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2010 .
system failures , it remains an interesting question to me where issues of corporate failure arise .
Dr Jayant Patel
In Australia , we had the Dr Jayant Patel case at Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland . It is important to stress that he was eventually acquitted of charges of manslaughter .
But it did emerge that the hospital had not checked his US credentials to see whether he had restrictions on his practice as a surgeon there .
It turned out he had . It also turned out he became Bundaberg ’ s director of surgery despite not having the necessary specialist surgery qualifications to operate in Australia .
Bacchus Marsh Hospital
We have also witnessed the prolonged and savage fallout of the Bacchus Marsh Hospital failures in Victoria , where it was asserted that there were 11 avoidable baby
deaths at a hospital that was chronically underfunded and understaffed .
The consultant director of medical services was deregistered for her failure to provide a safe obstetric service . But a string of doctors and nurses — both junior and senior — have been hauled before medical boards and tribunals to account for their own alleged failures .
There does not seem to have been a management or political equivalent of this system offering
The response seems to consist of an invitation to early retirement before anyone comes knocking .
the same degree of public humiliation and retribution .
As we know , the clinicians both high and low were working in a unit that was being overwhelmed by increasing demand but starved of the staffing resources to meet it .
Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba
And then there was Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba , a registrar at the Leicester Royal Infirmary in the UK , who was convicted of manslaughter and deregistered over the death of a six-yearold boy .
She too worked in a chaotic failing hospital where there was little support and management was failing .
After a long fight , she was restored to the register on appeal .
I can find no evidence that the hospital administration faced any similar disciplinary or legal action .
Accountability
The facts of these cases may not meet the definition of corporate manslaughter . But they raise questions familiar to all doctors .
What accountability is there for those who preside over dysfunctional workplaces where staff fight not to fail in their own duties of care ?
Too often the response seems to consist of an invitation to early retirement with a golden handshake before anyone comes knocking at the door with questions .
Note : The original version of this article was published on the AusDoc website before Cheshire Police announced its corporate manslaughter investigation . As a result , this article has been updated .
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