Medical professionals are not required to provide care for everyone they meet. In order for a duty of care to exist, there must be some form of voluntary agreement between the medical professional and the patient. The agreement will form the basis of the doctor-patient relationship, and from that point forward the doctor will owe the patient a duty of care.

 

Under certain circumstances, a doctor-patient relationship will be presumed even in the absence of such a voluntary agreement. When a patient is unconscious, a doctor-patient relationship is formed when the patient’s relatives or health care agent engages the doctor’s services.