Lawyer and author Albert Gyamfi has stated that healthcare professionals have a responsibility to inform their patients about the potential side effects of medications.
According to him, if a doctor fails to inform a patient about possible side effects and the patient suffers as a result, the doctor can be held accountable.
He provided an example, explaining that if a doctor does not inform a patient that a medication could cause drowsiness and the patient subsequently has an accident due to the drowsiness, the doctor could be held liable.
Speaking on JoyNews ‘The Law,’ Mr Gyamfi said, “The linkage is that the injury I have suffered is that I have suffered bodily harm. The bodily harm was a result of the accident. The accident was because I was drowsy.
“I was drowsy because I was given a drug. I was not given any information by the doctor that it is going to cause this, so there is some sort of chain between the act of the doctor and the harm you have suffered. If the chain is broken at a point in time, you are not going to get any remedy”.
He explained that in cases of causation, if a patient had suffered the same harm regardless of the doctor’s negligence, the doctor cannot be held responsible.
Mr Gyamfi further noted that if multiple factors contribute to the patient’s suffering, the doctor cannot be solely held accountable.
He added that if an incident involves several contributing factors but only one is linked to the doctor’s negligence, the doctor may be exonerated from responsibility.
“But when it comes to multiple factors, the court looks at what is called ‘the risk of substantially increasing,’ so if we have five factors, one of them substantially increases the risk of me having the harm, and that one is what was caused by the doctor, then the court can hold the doctor responsible for negligence “he noted.
Albert Gyamfi has also advised Ghanaians to take steps to sue facilities and medical professionals for suspected cases of medical negligence to help reform the country’s health system.