Culpability and Compensation in Canadian Health Care: Much Ado About No-Fault?

In 1990, J. Robert Prichard released his report (1) to the Conference of Deputy Ministers on “Liability and Compensation in Health Care.” He concluded that from 1975 to 1990 there had been significant growth in the frequency and severity of malpractice claims, insurance premiums and the cost of malpractice litigation. Despite this growth, only about ten percent of persons suffering avoidable health care injuries with potentially viable claims received compensation. Prichard also concluded that there was enormous opportunity for further growth in malpractice litigation, and no reason to believe that this growth would not occur over the next decade or two. Nevertheless, he could not conclude that his findings were indicative of a malpractice “crisis”. Rather, he surmised that the problem was “...confined to a serious situation that imposes significant costs, pressure and anxieties, and leaves a very large number of injured but uncompensated people” (1). In 1996, the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) released its annual report “A Year Under Scrutiny.” In the President’s Preface, W.D.S. Thomas commented: