DOCTORS, dentists and surgeons should not be charged with culpable homicide over medical blunders if they did not intend to harm a patient, one of Scotland’s top clinicians said.

Professor David Galloway, president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG), said a “genuine blame free culture” in the NHS was in the best interest of both patients and medics because it would lead to a culture in which “lessons can be learned and patient safety enhanced”.

It comes after it emerged the Crown Office has ruled out criminal charges against an obstetrician, Dr Vaishnavy Laxman, who faces being struck off over alleged blunders that resulted in a baby boy being decapitated during delivery at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

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In Scotland, health professionals suspected of killing patients as a result of negligence can be prosecuted for culpable homicide. This is equivalent to gross negligence manslaughter in England and Wales.

Mr Galloway said the current legal position allowed individual clinicians to be saddled with the responsibility for “systemic challenges beyond their immediate control”.

He said: “We believe there is a strong argument to be made that gross negligence manslaughter, or culpable homicide in Scotland, should not be a criminal offence within the clinical context.

“There is real merit in the argument of Sir Ian Kennedy, QC, who stated ‘medical manslaughter means you can pick someone, blame them and imagine you have solved the problem’. This is the wrong approach.

“It is with this in mind that we need to establish how best to ensure the role of system failure in medical negligence cases is properly examined and recorded.

“Most of all, we need to see real leadership within the medical community to re-establish a genuine blame free culture.”

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It comes as the RCPSG wrote to the Williams Review, which is probing negligence law in relation to healthcare across the UK, to say prosecutions should be based on an intent to do harm, not errors.

In its submission, the College said: “There are certainly errant doctors who should be charged with this type of offence (manslaughter).

“What should distinguish these individuals from those who are put in an impossible situation and have made a mistake or mistakes? It is surely the intent to do harm.”