ABSTRACT
Your beano with the patient who is alleged to have been negligently treated reminds me of one of my old chiefs – Bill Williams – who said, “The first thing you do before touching a fracture is be sure your malpractice insurance is in good shape; then have it X-rayed; set it; X-ray it again and damn the expense. Unfortunately you can only do the first thing in my job and the rest is in the lap of the gods. One of the first cases I had – of course it is when you are most vulnerable at the beginning of your career, and then when you are vulnerable because you are senile – was a paranoid girl who wanted to sue me. Luckily the malpractice people in England are very unflappable and unless you are patently guilty of being a nit-wit they stand by you. However, it is nasty while it lasts and heaven knows what a welfare state does for a doctor. Anyway an early inoculation stands you in good stead, unless of course the inoculation becomes inflamed.
