MPS Update

The right to representation

MPS Medical Director Dr Priya Singh looks at one of the cornerstones of MPS assistance.

Demonstrating our competence and meeting professional standards is something we all expect to do. Healthcare professionals and patients alike would probably all make the same reasonable assumption – that those we work with or consult are trained, appropriately skilled and competent.

At MPS, I see members whose experiences span the spectrum of what this means in reality.

Many have experience of poor or suboptimal performance which is not being recognised or managed appropriately, creating concerns about standards of care.

And, equally often, there are those who have experience of seeing careers destroyed by the very process by which competence is examined, even when the individual is ultimately judged to be competent following review.

Wherever our individual concerns may lie, the issue on which there is agreement is that we must ensure the fairness of any procedures by which competence is examined, whether by employers, regulators or other tribunals. Fairness includes the need to ensure that MPS is allowed to provide the high quality, experienced legal representation that members need in such potentially career-threatening proceedings.

MPS has brought many successful challenges around the world to protect members’ rights to fair processes. In the most recent of these, MPS’s legal advisers successfully argued against national regulations that denied legal representation to a junior doctor facing disciplinary allegations at a UK hospital. The case had to be taken all the way to the Court of Appeal to establish that to deny such legal representation was unfair and went against the principles of natural justice.

 

Pioneering training for experts in Ireland

Last November MPS held the first training day for “medical experts” in Ireland at the offices of Matheson Ormsby Prentice (MOP) on the banks of the River Liffey in Dublin. Thirteen medical experts from a variety of specialties, including general practice, plastic surgery, gastroenterology, anaesthetics and intensive care, and paediatrics, attended the day alongside MPS medicolegal advisers and lawyers.

The purpose of the training day was to bring together medical experts in Ireland and highlight their duties and responsibilities when acting as a medical expert in medical negligence claims.

The packed programme covered a wide variety of topics including:

  • Professional accountability as medical practitioners
  • The MPS claims handling ethos
  • Clinical negligence – the legal principles of breach, causation and the assessment of damages, the legal process, and the role of judges, lawyers, witnesses and experts
  • Excellence in report writing 
  • Courtroom skills.

The afternoon was an interactive session based around a case study on the “failure to diagnose breast cancer” in a 35-year-old patient. Delegates broke up into small groups to debate the merits of a “bad” report and a “good” report and lively debate resulted. The delegates felt that the discussion time was invaluable and went away with a much better understanding of their roles and responsibilities as medical experts.

If you are interested in participating in a training day for medical experts, contact Stacey Mack.

 

MPS expands educational resource for members

MPS is building on its existing portfolio of educational services and significantly increasing the range of programmes on offer to its UK and international members.

Part of this is the establishment of an Asia Pacific educational services division, headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. This office has already undertaken a series of workshops throughout the Asia Pacific region. The range, not all of which is on offer yet, covers professionalism, ethics, clinical practice, communication and practice systems and processes. All workshops are provided free as a benefit of MPS membership and CPD/CME accreditation has been received in all regions.

The first in the series of workshops is “Mastering Your Risk”. This is an internationally recognised, communication-based workshop, attended to date by more than 10,000 clinicians worldwide. This workshop uses international research to explain the rationale and concepts behind risk management including:

  • Understanding why patients complain and sue
  • Why certain “bedside” manners expose some doctors to increased risk
  • International experience in reducing risk and indemnity subscriptions
  • The link between communication skills and patient dissatisfaction.

If you have any enquiries about these workshops or wish to register your interest in attending, please email us.