The patient who is suing for compensationfor having two implants survive rather than one deseves compensation. Rather than the measily token compensation of two cents I would be more generous if I was on the jury and give her a fifty cent piece administered in the right place! My attitude is colured by our lovely five natural children and the extra one we took in in her late teens. One lovely family I know takes in foster children and recently obliged a government officer by taking a large family of children on a temporary basis. What a marvellous difference in attitude to children.
No doctor should be penalised for Good Samaritan acts gone wrong. There should be some requirement to show significant malpractice.

Regarding the twins - one solution might be to adopt one out. Why not?! I, for one, would be delighted to bring up another baby. So perhaps I could be placed at the top of a list that I am certain would unfortunately grow very long, very fast.

Why are victims of adverse events not quickly compensated by the state for the damage done to them - regardless if it was due to negligence or a forgivable mistake?

Why are lawyers with a vested interest in stretching out the case and insurance companies determined to avoid making a payout involved?

Why do we have doctors avoiding obstetrics because of huge insurance premiums?

Why have we been asking these same questions for decades?

Wanting to be compensated for an extra baby is a bit much as a baby can be given up and it can cost you none.

However this issue impacted my family. Due to an injury at birth my son suffered a disability. This disability is usually caused by the doctor not using the right manouvre when presented with a child with shoulder dystocia. It happened to my son.

Then, the Public system was incapable of catering for my son's disability. He wasn't disabled enough, they didn't have enough funding. He had to wait, often a years wait. He needed physio, an operation, more physio, speech therapy - just to name a few. We had to pay for our son to be treated by private doctors. It has cost us an arm and a leg.

We understand that the midwife (Doctor was too busy) didn't do it on purpose as she didn't know better, what we cant understand is why nobody tries to make amends or at least limits the impact financially and emotionally that these errors have on the families!

The consequences are simple. Those who cannot efficiently and competently perform a function are sued out of the profession. That happens because professional bodies protect rather than punish the incompetent.

Try getting a doctor to testify against another doctor, a politician against a politician, a banker against a banker, a soldier against a soldier, an NRL player against another NRL player. A union rep against a union rep. A PM against his Minister.

They won't do it so we have to use lawyers.

What would you prefer? That incompetent or worse professionals simply continue doing what they do so badly?

Point the finger where it belongs, at the failure of peers to self regulate rather than use the dog whistle of lawyers and suing as the alternative.

Try looking at the real reasons for the explosion of litigation rather than blame those injured and the lawyers who do prey on them.

It is simply cowardice.

Nice article

A couple of points though: MDOs (medical defence organisations) can no longer offer discretionary cover (meaning they ELECT to pay a claim) - this ceased along with a whole lot of reforms after the UMP debacle - MDOs now have to have a licensed insurer underwriting their policies (answerable to APRA) and it is an insurance policy in the same way that all other insurance companies write policies.

Also, there IS good samaritan legislation in certain states, I would need to research to check exact details but doctors can render assistance without payment in emergency situations without fear of being prosecuted, though it gets murky when you start talking about whether they have tried to do something outside their expertise. There is also legal precedent where doctors have been found guilty of NOT rendering assistance in an emergency situations.

Agree with the basic point that the NZ "no fault" comp scheme is worth investigating. Also, there is recent evidence to suggest that cerebral palsy is far more often caused by other factors in pregnancy than by perinatal anoxia, as was always believed to be the case. The record payout for med negligence in Australia remains the Calandre Simpson cerebral palsy case at 14m (reduced on appeal) so that is something to think about.

People who suffer misfortune obviously need to be looked after but as the author rightly points out, there should not have to be someone to allocate blame to, in order to ensure that this happens.