Defective Medical Equipment & Medical Negligence

When medical equipment is being used in the treatment of a patient and there is a defect in the equipment, or it does not work to the standard it is expected thus causing harm to a patient, medical negligence may arise.

All equipment being used in the treatment or procedures must be checked before use to ensure that the equipment is working correctly.

In some cases, the manufacturer may be joined as defendants where it can be proved that the failure of the equipment to work was a fault in its design.

In other cases it is the decision making of the health care provider to use inappropriate equipment which does not meet European Economic Area safety standards. A CE marking it is called, is a marking on goods sold in he EEA. It signifies that a product meets health and safety standards.

Medical Negligence Context

Hospitals ie medical care providers have a duty of care evidently to their patients.

This entails standard matters for the diagnosis, treatment, aftercare etc. but the standard of care can also apply to the equipment used.

How may think how could equipment be defective in this context. In most care matters there is no issue, but if the standards fall they can fall far in essence. Consequences for defective equipment used in procedures can be very onerous to the patient and indeed their families.

If a faulty product is used in a procedure, it may not be as easy as seeking to have it removed immediately. Evidently if such a scenario arises, the patient and likely the family will want the person attending with new care providers they trust to assist to try and seek assistance with the matter.

Product Liability Act 1991

The Product Liability Act of 1991 provides a legislative framework in Irish law to deal with defective product legal matters and remedies.

It was last updated on the 28^th of May 2019.

Under Section Section 2 of the Act there is provision for Liability for Defective Products :

2.—(1) The producer shall be liable in damages in tort for damage caused wholly or partly by a defect in his product.

(2) In this Act, “producer” means—

(a) the manufacturer or producer of a finished product, or

(b) the manufacturer or producer of any raw material or the manufacturer or producer of a component part of a product, or

(c) in the case of the products of the soil, of stock-farming and of fisheries and game, which have undergone initial processing, the person who carried out such processing, or

(d) any person who, by putting his name, trade mark or other distinguishing feature on the product or using his name or any such mark or feature in relation to the product, has held himself out to be the producer of the product, or

(e) any person who has imported the product into a Member State from a place outside the European Communities inorder, in the course of any business of his, to supply it to another, or

(f) any person who is liable as producer of the product pursuant to subsection (3) of this section.

(3) Without prejudice to subsection (1) of this section, where damage is caused wholly or partly by a defect in a product, any person who supplied the product (whether to the person who suffered the damage, to the producer of any product in which the product is comprised or to any other person) shall, where the producer of the product cannot by taking reasonable steps be identified, be liable, as the producer, for the damage if—

(a) the injured person requests the supplier to identify any person (whether still in existence or not) to whom paragraph (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) of subsection (2) of this section applies in relation to the product,

(b) that request is made within a reasonable time after the damage occurs and at a time when it is not reasonably practicable for the injured person to identify all those persons, and

(c) the supplier fails, within a reasonable time after receiving the request, either to comply with the request or to identify the person who supplied the product to him.

A defective product is defined under the legislation as :
Defective product.

5.—(1) For the purposes of this Act a product is defective if it fails to provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect, taking all circumstances into account, including.