ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the intersection of these forms of self-regulation using the example of an Australian surgeon who performed a mastectomy on the wrong breast. Standard checklists are designed for use in the operating room and represent one form of self-regulation to minimize errors and to promote safety. There is reasonable evidence that the use of such checklists may assist surgeons in preventing a range of errors in surgery including wrong site surgery. A wide range of checklists, including the US Universal Protocol and the World Health Organization's (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist are in current use. The Tribunal accepted the surgeon's evidence that he wrongly assumed that the usual hospital protocols had been implemented. The Medical Tribunal noted that character evidence received from eminent medical practitioners, many of whom have known the for a very long period of time, can only be described as of the highest quality and overwhelmingly compelling and favourable.
