Delusional psychosis + self harm: Claim against hospital.

LC by his litigation guardian KS v Australian Capital Territory [2017] ACTSC 324 saw a claim by a patient who alleged that the defendant knew or ought to have known that he was suffering from a delusional psychosis and had a tendency towards self-harm, but it nevertheless failed to put in place procedures to prevent him from harming himself.

At [59] the court held:

I accept the evidence of Dr Raftos that a mental health assessment of the plaintiff properly conducted by a medical practitioner within four hours of the plaintiff’s arrival at the hospital would, on the balance of probabilities, have resulted in an order for involuntary detention being made under s 41 of the Act. Had that occurred it is probable that the plaintiff would not have been able to abscond and would not have suffered the injuries that he did. There was a failure by the defendant to respond adequately to the knowledge that the plaintiff was delusional and prone to self-harm, in part evidenced by its failure to have the plaintiff assessed by a medical practitioner within the timeframe mandated by the Act and the consequent failure to obtain authorisation for involuntary detention under the Act. On the basis of the evidence of Dr Raftos I am satisfied that competent authority in charge of the management of the plaintiff in 2007 would have complied with the requirements of the Act and, as such, I am satisfied that there was a breach of the duty of care that the defendant owed the plaintiff. I am further satisfied that there is a sufficient causal nexus between the breach of duty and the damage sustained by the plaintiff to found an action in negligence.

The decision is the subject of a more detailed summary by Karen Kumar and Monica Pecker on the Hicksons Blog.