Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters “Wrongful conception” case

“Wrongful conception”: the case for no-fault compensation

BMJ 2022; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o153 (Published 21 January 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;376:o153
  1. Santhanam Sundar, consultant oncologist
  1. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK
  1. sundar{at}oncology.org

Evie Toombes seems to be an extraordinary person who has achieved so much in life despite substantial obstacles. Any compassionate person would wholeheartedly support her receiving compensation.1

But at a societal level, there is a risk of floodgates opening for claims based on inadequately documented preventive services—for example, lack of documentation about weight loss promotion in overweight people, particularly those with learning or mental disabilities, lack of detailed documentation about statin refusal in a patient who ends up having myocardial infarction, and so on.

If such claims result in a large amount of compensation awarded against doctors, the NHS might end up ditching preventive services altogether. This case shows the need for no-fault reasonable compensation to support all people who have been medically harmed rather than awarding huge sums of money to the few who can litigate.2

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None declared.

References

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