The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health and care workers is unprecedented in our time. Services under strain before the crisis must now operate under even greater pressure and providers and individual clinicians are having to make resourcing decisions with significant consequences.
Those having to make such decisions will no doubt be concerned about legal ramifications if their actions prove to have been less than optimal in hindsight. Inquiries and investigations into how the crisis was handled are inevitable, as well as legal challenges that follow allegations of negligent care and breaches of legal rights.
Executives and practitioners reading the industry press could also be forgiven for thinking that COVID-19 criminal prosecutions are also unavoidable. However, such predictions do not appear well founded.