What is the standard expected of a doctor in the context of a negligence claim?

The standard expected of a doctor against whom a complaint of negligence has been levied is clear: a physician “must possess and use that reasonable degree of learning and skill ordinarily possessed by medical practitioners in similar communities in similar cases”: Wilson v. Swanson, 1956 CanLII 1 (SCC), [1956] S.C.R. 804 at p. 817.

In ter Neuzen v. Korn, 1995 CanLII 72 (SCC), [1995] 3 S.C.R. 674, Mr. Justice Sopinka neatly articulated the law relating to medical malpractice claims in the following manner: 33. It is well settled that physicians have a duty to conduct their practice in accordance with the conduct of a prudent and diligent doctor in the same circumstances. [...] 38. It is generally accepted that when a doctor acts in accordance with a recognized and respectable practice of the profession, he or she will not be found to be negligent. This is because courts do not ordinarily have the expertise to tell professionals that they are not behaving appropriately in their field. In a sense, the medical profession as a whole is assumed to have adopted procedures which are in the best interests of patients and are not inherently negligent.