Gordon v Wilson and Others

(1992) 3 Med LR 401

COURT OF SESSION, OUTER HOUSE

and Lord PENROSE

Professional liability — General practitioner — Duty to refer — Tumour (meningioma) affecting cranial nerves — Usual and normal practice of general practitioners in appropriate circumstances — Whether circumstances might be such that referral should be made as matter of urgency — Whether course doctors adopted was one which no professional man of ordinary skill would have taken if he had been acting with ordinary care — Patient allegedly presenting with unilateral deafness and imbalance — Whether patient had established that symptoms were so communicated to her general practitioners that they would have had any duty to respond — Relevant test on issue of liability in cases relating to diagnosis and patient management — Causation — Damages — Estimation of solatium — Assessment of costs of past care provided by husband attending to his wife — Transport and telephone expenses