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Legal

Statutory reform of the death certification process in England and Wales

There has been little change to the death registration process for over 50 years. Registrars relied on the MCCD issued by a single attending doctor to proceed with certification. Only cases referred...

A professional and legal duty to keep up to date

It will be impossible for any nurse or doctor to analyse everything that is relevant to their clinical practice area. They do, however, owe patients a legal duty of care and part of this will be the...

Key requirements for obtaining valid informed consent to treatment

‘The right to determine what shall be done with one's own body is a fundamental right in our society. The concepts inherent in this right are the bedrock upon which the principles of...

Is it right to talk about patient safety rights?

In the legal literature the subject of rights is a hotly debated one. Many legal theorists in a subject area called jurisprudence and elsewhere have debated the matter. It is a useful exercise to look...

Practical implications of overlapping mental capacity assessments

Section 2(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides that:.

Best interests must be centred on the person's needs not those of the family

Nurses and others are given general authority under section 5 of the Mental Capacity Act to act in relation to a person's care and treatment where:.

The challenges facing the NHS in implementing Martha's Rule

The call for Martha's Rule arose out of the tragic death of 13-year-old Martha Mills, who died from sepsis in 2021 at King's College Hospital, London. There was a failure to recognise that she...

Residual liberty and the detained mental health patient

In AM v South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and The Secretary of State for Health [2013], Justice Charles held that the Mental Capacity Act 2005 could be used to treat a physical condition...

Clinical negligence: should the NHS consider a no-fault system?

‘… costs … have continued to grow at an eye-watering rate. Ten years ago, the NHS paid £900 million in damages; last year it was £2.17 billion – equivalent to the annual running costs of the biggest...

No duty to shield relatives from the shocking aftermath of treatment or death

Nervous shock used to be the term used to describe psychiatric harm that arose as result of another's negligent action. It is now more accurate to refer to such harm as a psychiatric injury, but the...

Applying the appropriate treatment test in the Mental Health Act 1983

‘Nursing, psychological intervention and specialist mental health habilitation, rehabilitation and care.’ .

Statins: the risks and statistics

‘If clinicians are going to recommend statins to their patients, then their duty of care must extend to ensuring that the nature of absolute risk and relative risk is explained’ .

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