Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:41:20 +0100

From: Steve Hedley

Subject: Employer's claim for injury to employee

Plus: who's to say where the primary duty points? (Consider El-Safty: WBA exercising its contractual right to make A see its nominated doctor.)

Who's to say? The judges are, as ever. I agree that we should pose the question of where the primary duty points. The court's assumption that the doctor's primary duty is to the patient is more instinctive than reasoned - other possibilities have been mentioned already, that the primary duty is to the employer, who can be likened to a parent and/or the owner of a valuable asset the value of which should be safeguarded. Personally I think the court's instinct is very healthy, and that treating adults either as children or as things should only be done rarely, and for demonstrated reasons. But that's just me.

Steve Hedley
Faculty of Law, University College Cork

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