From the NationalPost.com

TORONTO — In an unusual case of cross-border medical malpractice, the Alberta Health Ministry is suing an Ontario doctor whose alleged misdiagnosis of a brain tumour led to the patient needing extensive – and costly – treatment in the Western province.

Alberta’s top court recently gave the green light to the lawsuit – jointly launched with the patient and her husband – after a lower court said judges there had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The earlier ruling noted that the alleged error occurred in Ontario. But the Court of Appeal said Martina Gulevich’s tumour grew and became cancerous after she had moved to Alberta, while doctors initially relied on the wrong diagnosis to treat her.

Jurisdiction lies in Gulevich’s new home, not in Ontario where the radiologist failed to notice a three-centimetre tumour on her CT scn, it said.

“The province most substantially affected by the (Ontario doctor’s) activities and its consequences is Alberta,” ruled the court. “Alberta … has also incurred significant cost.”

The case underscores a little-known phenomenon in malpractice law: provincial governments suing physicians — often the same ones whose fees and malpractice premiums they pay – for causing a patient injury and triggering more use of medical resources.

Read more here.