Doctors and would-be doctors in the law reports

Abstract

This paper is the St. Luke's Day Oration, delivered by His Honour the Chief Justice to the Malta Branch of the British Medical Association on the 18th October 1973 at the Medical School of the University. Civil cases in which doctors had been involved and which figure out in Maltese Law Reports are described. A case in point shows how a father, sued a doctor for damages arising out of the fact that the son, who was under the professional care of the doctor, allegedly through the doctor's negligence, lost his foot and suffered permanent debilitation. Warrants of seizure and of impediment of departure, as well as a garnishee order, were also issued against the doctor. It was on the basis of the experts' findings themselves that both Courts reached the clear conclusion that there had been negligence on the part of the doctor. Several other cases are reported, one of which for instance involves the doctor`s prescription. The focus here is on the dark side of things that brings out more fully the brighter side, whereby the medical profession in Malta has indeed a very bright record.