Ali Shah v North West London Hospital NHS Trust

Medical practitioner – Duty of care. The claimant sought damages for negligence following the death of his wife in the hospital for which the defendant NHS Trust was responsible. He contended that her death would have been prevented had her peripheral leg pulses been tested by palpation. The Queen's Bench Division, in dismissing the claim, preferred the evidence of the defendant's expert. On that evidence, the claimant had not established a breach of duty by the doctor. Further, it was highly speculative that, had the doctor palpated the deceased's peripheral pulses, life-saving surgery would have been performed on time.