Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

A majority of the Court of Appeal (McCombe LJ dissenting) concluded that there was no general duty for receptionists at Accident & Emergency units to keep patients informed about likely waiting times.

The appellant had suffered a head trauma and on arrival at A&E he was (incorrectly) advised that he would be seen in 4-5 hours. Clinical guidelines established that patients with head injuries should be seen by the triage nurse in 15 minutes. Had the appellant been aware of that, he would have stayed; but as it was, he left after 19 minutes, later developing a left hemiplegia due to delayed treatment. The Court of Appeal held that (1) there was no breach of duty on the facts, as the expert evidence was that it would have been appropriate to triage the appellant 30 minutes after arrival; (2) it was not the function of receptionists to give any clinical advice or information to patients, thereby distinguishing them from ambulance service telephonists (Kent v Griffiths (No3) [2001] QB 36 distinguished). There was no general duty to keep patients informed about likely waiting times. Nor was it fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty not to provide inaccurate information about waiting times; even if that liability existed, the scope could not extend to liability for the consequences of a patient walking out without telling staff he was about to leave. There was therefore no causal link between the breach of any duty and the appellant’s injury.