ABSTRACT
The so called Bolam test may be interpreted in different ways. As Keown (1995) asks, ‘Is the test whether, in the opinion of the court, the doctor exercised reasonable care? Or is it whether the doctor complied with ordinary practice?’. In other words, he asks: is it for the courts to decide what is reasonable care ‘albeit in the light of evidence as to professional practice?’. Or is it for the medical profession to set the standard, so that if a practitioner acts in accordance with the accepted practice, he would not be regarded as liable in negligence. The present writer suggests that the many cases dealing with this issue post-Bolam appear to have generally favoured the latter interpretation. Another commentator, Michael Jones (1991), argues that the Bolam test ‘fails to make this important distinction between the ordinary skilled doctor and the reasonably competent doctor, and this has produced some confusion in the cases’. As we have seen, the House of Lords were certainly in favour of the test in the mid-1980s in cases such as Sidaway, as they were in Maynard v West Midlands RHA [1984] 1 WLR 634.
