News & Events
News & Events
Recent case law has confirmed the level of difficulty encountered when attempting to persuade the courts to intervene at an early stage in trust disciplinary proceedings. That the courts may intervene where it is deemed appropriate was clearly stated in Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2011] UKSC 58, in which Lord Dyson said that where an employer starts a disciplinary process in breach of an express term of the employment contract ‘it is open to the employee to seek an injunction to stop the process and/or to seek an appropriate declaration’. Read the full article, by Michael Uberoi and James Leonard, in The Lawyer Magazine.
News 26 Jun, 2013
The claim arose out of allegedly negligent vascular surgery in 2008 which the Claimant contended had resulted in the above knee amputation of the 64 year old Claimant’s right leg. Specifically the Claimant criticised the surgeon’s use of a Dacron graft (as opposed to a vein graft) to bypass the diseased common femoral artery. After hearing extensive evidence from expert vascular surgeons (Professor Peter Bell for the Claimant and Mr Jonothan Earnshaw for the Trust) the trial Judge (Treverton-Jones QC) dismissed the claim.
News 6 May, 2013
Christopher Kemp acted for a doctor at a Fitness To Practice hearing before MPTS, which ended after 3 days. Despite the doctor admitting 2 separate “very serious” clinical errors in 2009 and 2010 respectively, the doctor’s fitness to practice was found not to be impaired and no warning was issued.
News 28 Apr, 2013
The case was exceptionally heard in London rather than Manchester due to the ill health of the doctor. The doctor faced allegations that he carried out a sexually motivated examination of a patient during a purported stomach examination and then made false entries in her medical records to cover his tracks. The GMC refused to call evidence from a witness who saw and spoke to the patient both before and after the consultation and also spoke to the doctor afterwards. Following a submission by Mr Haycroft that the doctor was not obliged to call such a witness himself but that such a witness could give relevant evidence as regards what was said by both the doctor and the patient and…
News 24 Apr, 2013
The final inquest into the death of a patient at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital has just concluded. Alan Jenkins was first instructed in 2001, on behalf of Dr Jane Barton, a GP and clinical assistant at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital, when a police investigation had commenced into the circumstances in which patients had died at the hospital during the 1990’s. The investigation, which lasted 5 years, went on to consider the deaths of 92 patients, and specifically with regard to Dr Barton’s role in prescribing opiate drugs, but no criminal charges were brought. Alan Jenkins appeared for Dr Barton in a lengthy inquest in 2009 into the deaths of 10 of those patients, and he subsequently acted in…
News 23 Apr, 2013
Charles Foster, specialist medical lawyer, speaking at University of Oxford Medical Inquest Conference regarding sudden cardiac death in Oxford 10th January 2103. For more details visit: http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/SADS.php.
News 10 Jan, 2013
Charles Foster, specialist medical lawyer, was interviewed on The Big Questions on 6 Jan 2013. He discussed the ethics of creating children using artificial sperm. To watch the episode please visit: http://bbc.in/WoURwz.
News 10 Jan, 2013
Niyousha Haki, 28, from Birmingham died from pneumonia after contract Swine Flu during the pandemic in the Winter of 2010. She was seen by ambulance staff on 3 separate occasions prior to her death, but was not taken to hospital.
News 5 Dec, 2012
Anthony Haycroft has successfully defended a Glasgow based trainee GP in the Medical Tribunal Practitioners Service in October 2012. The doctor was accused by the General Medical Council of a series of sexual misconduct charges including rape of a girl who is now a doctor.
News 5 Nov, 2012
Fiona Horlick represented a well known GP who was charged with sexually assaulting a patient over a 15 year period. The patient was in her late 60s by the time of trial and disabled. She gave evidence for 4 days at Cambridge Crown Court earlier this month.
News 14 Oct, 2012
Robert Dickason has successfully argued at the GDC for the revocation of an interim order on the basis of the authority in Calhaem v GMC. Although only at the interim stage, the evidence presented by the GDC could not be said to be a fair reflection of the registrant’s work. It followed that a finding of impairment based on deficient professional performance was unlikely and so the continuation of the interim order was unnecessary.
News 26 Sep, 2012
Representing a number of doctors from consultant level downwards, Fiona has succeeded in ensuring that there has been no findings of impaired fitness to practice against her clients. The allegations have ranged from sexual assault on patients to dishonesty to clinical errors.
News 18 Sep, 2012
