One of your patients who has been to the local hospital and was seen by an oncologist who missed a diagnosis of lymphoma on him.

The patient has suffered some delay in treatment and possibly a slight worsening of prognosis.

He comes to you to guide him to help him to sue. For this he wants you to assess the different aspects of neglect that could have occured.

What should you do?

1. Review all his papers and point out potential mistakes.
2. Review papers and give him a few pointers.
3. Not review the case but lead him to an attorney
4. Not review the case and ask him to avoid suing
5. Review the case and see if you are involved in the case and have made mistakes yourself.

The answer is 3

Patient comes to you to assess for malpractice.

You should not say that this is OK. The patient's attorney should be contacting a doctor who is not involved with the day to day care of the patient. If you are the carer of a patient who has been the victim of malpractice by someone else, you should not be the defendant for the patient.

As an expert witness, you should never have met the patient. You should only have seen the medical records and case descriptions.