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30 Medico-Legal J. 1 (1962)

handle is hein.journals/medlgjr30 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL PROFESSOR KEITH SIMPSON MEMBERS of the Medico-Legal Society will be delighted to hear of the distinction conferred on our President, Keith Simpson, in his appointment to the Chair of Forensic Medicine in the University of London at Guy's Hospital Medical School. This is the first time that a Chair in Forensic Medicine has been established in London and, coming as it does during his term of office as President, must give great satis- faction to all of us. The Chair is a part-time one, and there is a considerable advantage in having teaching in the hands of Professor Simpson, who will continue the active practice of forensic medicine. This appointment has peculiar significance for the academic study of the subject, as forensic medicine is no longer part of the undergraduate curriculum. It empha- sizes that forensic medicine is gaining in importance, but in what we consider to be its rightful place as a post-graduate speciality. A further honour given to Professor Simpson's department is that Dr. Alan Grant, a member of the Medico-Legal Society, has recently been made a University Lecturer in Forensic Serology. OPERATING ON THE WRONG PATIENT OR WRONG PART OF A PATIENT As there has been a recent increase in cases in which the wrong patient, or the wrong limb, has been operated upon surgically, we reproduce, with the consent of the Medical Defence Union, a memorandum giving advice as to how this kind of mistake can be minimized. It is thought that it will be of interest to both legal and medical members. MEMORANDUM THE- Medical Defence Union and the Royal College of Nursing have given con- sideration to the steps that might be taken to obviate the risk of an operation being performed on: (a) the wrong patient, (b) the wrong side, (c) the wrong digit. During the period October, 1959, to September, 1961, the Medical Defence Union dealt with no fewer than twenty-eight such cases and it is hardly necessary to say that these avoidable mistakes are quite indefensible. The Councils of the Medical Defence Union and the Royal College of Nursing are firmly of the opinion that in order to minimize the risk of such occurrences, it is eminently desirable that wherever practicable the suggested safeguards as outlined below should be taken. It is appreciated that in certain out-lying or cottage hospitals there is no resident medical staff and that in some hospitals it may not always be possible to adopt these safeguards in their entirety. (a) OPERATING ON THE WRONG PATIENT Causes Predisposing to Error. (i) In hospitals which undertake a vast amount of casualty work where emergency patients are being admitted in quick succession, some of them unconscious, there is the possibility of the notes becoming attached to the

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