This website is intended for healthcare professionals
This website is intended for healthcare professionals
‘Clinical competence was substandard, with deficient skills and knowledge; working relationships were extremely poor, particularly between different staff groups, such as obstetricians,...
Children are often subject to restrictions imposed by their parents or a person acting in loco parentis with such restrictions amounting to a deprivation of liberty.
To protect the dignity of patients by ensuring that restrictions imposed to protect that person and not overly intrusive, best interests assessors are commissioned to review the restrictions and...
‘All these symptoms, according to NICE guidelines, should have immediately raised a red flag for sepsis (blood poisoning) in children under five. In the hospital's own Serious Incident Report, a...
I see this happening in some debates about reforming clinical negligence litigation. We often hear clarion calls for clinical negligence reform and the need to safeguard scarce NHS resources, which is...
Never Event data show the issues of poor NHS communication strategies in a tragic light. Many of these terrible events would not have happened had good communication strategies been in place. NHS...
‘Keep to all relevant laws about mental capacity that apply in the country in which you are practising, and make sure that the rights and best interests of those who lack capacity are still at the...
The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 introduced hospital and limitation directions into the Mental Health Act 1983. Section 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983 allows the Crown Court to issue a hospital...
‘This unsustainable situation is driven by an outdated legal system rather than deteriorating clinical standards. Legal reform is desperately needed.’
When a person with a mental disorder is prosecuted it is open to them to argue that they are not guilty by reason of insanity. This legal defence is available at common law to any criminal charge. For...
According to NHS Resolution (2022a) missed fractures can occur at sites throughout the body but one injury in particular, hip fractures in older patients with a history of a fall, stood out when cases...
The law recognises that adults have a right to determine what will be done to their bodies (Re MB (Caesarean Section) [1997]). Touching a person without consent will amount to a civil trespass to the...
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