ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors attempts a broader view of the potential impact of a series of developments, including the decision in Bolitho, which they argue are likely to change the face of health care law in this country. The authors focus on the potential impact of Lord Browne-Wilkinson's review of the Bolam test so they explore the facts of the case itself and the intricacies of the causation debate. The Bolam test to its proper limits and appropriate context will be beneficial, rather than detrimental, to medicine and to medical litigation. Bolam, in suits for medical malpractice, was interpreted, whatever the judges might say, to allow judgment by colleagues to substitute for judgment by the courts. If the judgment in Bolitho stood alone, as the only indicator of a medical litigation revolution, the authors would have had substantial doubts whether any change, even change well short of revolution, might be expected in health care law.
