Clinical guidelines in obstetrics negligence claim

LXLP v St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2026] EWHC 560 (KB)

Research carried out some time ago revealed that the guidelines used by clinicians can influence the course of litigation. On occasion, there can be a conflict between national professional guidelines, international guidelines and those issued locally by an individual hospital. This situation can cause difficulties for clinicians who are torn, for example, between guidance issued by their Royal College and that of their employer. The complexity of the evidence presented in the case outlined below illustrates that although guidelines can be of some value in providing a broad consensus of expert views, every clinical presentation is different, and no set of guidelines can support speculation that goes beyond the existing evidence base. While the family of the child claimant might well have been confident of success in their claim, the law involved in this case is complex, concerning the established approach to determining breach of duty and causation. It involves the potential evidential value of guidelines in the context of breach of duty and arguments over the context of causation concerning the concept of material contribution as well as the relevance of indivisible injury in cases concerning infectious diseases and their response to different antibiotics.