Is conformity with common practice sufficient to exonerate a physician of negligence?

Generally, conformity with a common practice will exonerate a physician of a complaint of negligence. However, there are situations where the standard practice itself may be found to be negligent such as where the practice is fraught with obvious risks or, put another way, where a custom ignores the elementary dictates of caution. In ter Neuzen v. Korn, 1995 CanLII 72 (SCC), [1995] 3 S.C.R. 674 at 696-7, the late Sopinka J. said: It is evident from the foregoing passage that while conformity with common practice will generally exonerate physicians of any complaint of negligence, there are certain situations where the standard practice itself may be found to be negligent. However, this will only be where the standard practice is ‘fraught without obvious risks’ such that anyone is capable of finding it negligent, without the necessity of judging matters requiring diagnostic or clinical expertise.