Informing Patients: The Bolam Legacy

Cave, Emma; Milo, Caterina

doi:10.1177/0968533220954228

Informing Patients: The Bolam Legacy

Cave, Emma; Milo, Caterina

Authors

Professor Emma Cave emma.cave@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Caterina Milo

Abstract

In the context of medical advice to patients, the UK decision in Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Board rejected the application of Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee. This article argues that the rejection is neither complete nor settled. We explore doctrinal, conceptual and practical limitations of Montgomery to demonstrate the vestiges of Bolam’s relevance to medical advice. Medical advice does not end with disclosure of material risk but incorporates information on prognosis, diagnosis and treatment alternatives. Montgomery does not always apply in these cases, nor outside the medical mainstream or where patients lack capacity to consent. We identify ways in which the extension of patient-centred care in the giving of medical advice can be achieved through incremental development of Montgomery and application of the Bolitho gloss to require that processes conform to Montgomery principles of partnership and autonomy.

Citation

Cave, E., & Milo, C. (2020). Informing Patients: The Bolam Legacy. Medical Law International, 20(2), 103-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/0968533220954228

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 12, 2020
Online Publication Date	Sep 3, 2020
Publication Date	2020-06
Deposit Date	Aug 14, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Oct 9, 2020
Journal	Medical Law International
Print ISSN	0968-5332
Electronic ISSN	2047-9441
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	20
Issue	2
Pages	103-130
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0968533220954228

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Advance online version This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).