In claims against healthcare professionals or institutions for medical negligence or other grounds of medical malpractice, the points of contention are often heavily dependent on questions of fact and issues of expert opinion. Factual evidence and expert opinion thus play a central role, as was aptly demonstrated in the Singapore High Court case of Chia Soo Kiang v Tan Tock Seng Hospital Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 259. The case rested largely on the evidence of parties’ factual and expert witnesses, with the Court having to navigate the opposing opinions of the expert witnesses.
The Court here dismissed a claim brought by the plaintiff against Tan Tock Seng Hospital and doctors for the death of his mother, in which the plaintiff alleged that the hospital’s employees had been negligent in mis-diagnosing her and failing to send her to the ICU/HDU, and had failed to obtain her consent before stopping certain medications. This Update provides a summary of the key points of the decision.
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