Citation

Kelly AM, Cockburn T, Madden B. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1742-6723.13692

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Patients who are abusive or aggressive in ED raise special clinical and legal challenges. These include what steps clinicians should take to exclude serious illness/injury as the cause of the behaviour and when investigations or treatments can be imposed on these patients without their consent. Using a case illustration, this paper discusses legal issues which arise in this context, including how the standard of care owed by clinicians is determined and what may constitute a breach of duty; such patients' right to consent to (or decline) tests and treatment; and when clinicians may lawfully act without consent and/or control the patient's behaviour.

Language: en

Keywords

behavioural disturbance; medicolegal; negligence; restraint; trespass