Can a hospital and physician be held liable in common law for failing to provide adequate control and supervision for a mentally ill patient?

There is no doubt that hospitals and physicians can owe duties of care to persons who suffer harm as a foreseeable consequence of a breach of duty owed to a patient. Thus, in Wellesley Hospital v. Lawson, 1977 CanLII 29 (SCC), [1978] 1 S.C.R. 893, at page 896, Laskin C.J. stated: It was not doubted by counsel for the parties that at common law a hospital, especially one providing treatment for mentally-ill persons, would be under a common law liability if by reason of its failure to provide adequate control and supervision injury occurred to third persons by reason of the conduct or behaviour of a patient.