The legal concept of medical negligence

Where a patient suffers injury in the course of receiving medical care, he/she may resort to legal action in order to gain compensation. If it can be shown that he/she did not really consent to the procedure, then an action in battery may lie. Much more often, the patient's complaint will be that the particular treatment administered was, in terms of its execution, deficient in some respect. Here, at least for NHS patients, this will involve bringing a claim in medical negligence. (For patients in the private sector, an alternative would be to bring an action for breach of contract; however, the salient legal principles remain virtually the same.)