Interested talk at the recent annual ALA medical negligence conference in Sydney at which a stroke expert discussed the recently published large study of stroke treatment outcomes.

Such study clearly demonstrated the benefits, in terms of survival chances, of giving patients of any age thrombolytic treatment, if attending:

  • less than 3 hours after stroke onset;

A recent NSW case Dean v Phung [2012] NSWCA 223 raises interesting issues in a case of over-servicing/recommending unnecessary treatment. This seems an increasingly common suspicion/temptation with some areas of ‘elective’ medicine/dental treatment.

The facts in the case were awful!! The defendant left no stone or ‘tooth’ unturned – performing treatment on every single tooth

This much anticipated decision was delivered by Judge Goetze on 25 May 2012. As widely expected, Judge Goetze found in neurosurgeon Michael Lee (and paediatric oncologist Dr Baker’s favour) and dismissed Daniel Jordan’s claim.

The case is interesting as it raised the question of the obligations upon a surgeon (or other medical practitioners) to advise