Medico-Legal Litigation : the clinical contractual nature of the Obstetric Anaesthetist-Patient relationship

Abstract

Once the hand-maiden of obstetrics, obstetric anaesthesia, now a fully fledged sub-speciality today provides indispensable multi-faceted services mainly but not solely to the peripartum obstetric patient. Be it in routine as well as acute obstetric work, the speciality is an integral part of the team made up of obstetrician, midwife and neonatologist. Its input ensures modern optimal care to the parturient patient and her baby.1 The anaesthetist’s unique resusucitatoy skills and critical care experience makes him/her particularly valuable, especially in high-risk patients1 as evidenced by the struggle of units lacking such a service in overcoming numerous adminsitrative, financial and logistical problems to reach this paragon of standard of care.2 By the very nature of the acutely challenging situations it deals with, this speciality is especially vulnerable to medico-legal litigation.