Understanding Medical Law

Mylène Beaupré attorney specializes in Medical Law. She offers counsel, advocacy and training services in this vast area of law.

Medical Law regulates the relationship between a patient and a health care provider.

Medical Law consists of various areas including medical malpractice law, health law and human rights and freedoms law.

Medical malpractice law :

Medical malpractice law provides a mechanism through which a patient may claim for financial compensation if injury is caused by a health care provider’s (doctor, nurse, hospital, etc.) fault.

Though the doctor is careful, competent and working according to the state of the art in medical science, the patient cannot be promised recovery. There are too many unforeseen turn of events involved. In this sense, medicine is an art. Generally, the doctor does not have a duty to succeed, but rather a duty to take the means to succeed. Therefore, not every medical mistake calls for a medical malpractice claim. Through her experience and expertise, Mylène Beaupré attorney is able to thoroughly assess the situation.

Mylène Beaupré’s services as a lawyer are useful to victims of medical mistakes who wish :

To be more fully informed about what happened;
To assess whether or not their case calls for a medical malpractice claim;
To put forward a medical malpractice claim to seek financial compensation for the damages incurred.

Health Law :

Health care services in Quebec are organized and delivered within a network operating according to specific rules.

Health Law regulates health care professionals’ work within the network, whether they practice in a hospital or a private clinic. Health Law includes Medical Law. In fact, Health Law is a much broader area than Medical law.

Health care professionals are members of a professional order. Their role is to provide health care services to patients. They are doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, chiropractors, etc.

Generally, Health Law recognizes that patients within the health care network hold the following rights :

The right to confidentiality of the medical files and of the information arising from the therapeutic relationship and the right to the safe keeping of medical information;
The right to consent to treatment and the right to refuse treatment;
The right to quality health care and the right to safe health care;
The right to access information and the right to access health care.

From now on, new communication technology is well integrated into the health care network, allowing for more efficient management of health care and social services. Various applications are either in place or developing namely the electronic medical file and telemedicine (or telehealth): the provision of health care services to a patient located at a distance. These applications may or may not affect patients’ rights.

Human rights and freedoms law :

Sometimes human rights and freedoms under the Quebec Charter of human rights and freedoms are at stake in Medical Law namely: the right to personal security, inviolability and freedom; the right to assistance; the right to respect for a private life and the right to non-disclosure of confidential information.

Me Beaupré’s advice is particularly useful to anyone who wishes to claim for or to better understand the extent or the limits of patients’ human rights and freedoms within the health care and social services network.