Provision of medicolegal reports/acting as a medicolegal expert
13 Mar 2013
Estimated read time:
2 min read
MPS advice on the appropriate criteria required of members who produce medicolegal reports and/or act as a medicolegal expert.
Given the requirement to hold a licence in order to practise medicine in the UK, we have considered what is the appropriate criteria required by MPS of members who produce medicolegal reports and/or act as a medicolegal expert.
MPS requires any doctor conducting a current condition and prognosis consultation/examination involving patient contact to maintain a licence to practise
Doctors producing medicolegal reports purely from records will not be required by MPS to have a licence to practise, but will be expected by MPS to act within the bounds of their competency and specialty and also will be required by MPS to inform the instructing solicitor whether or not they have a licence to practise and/or intention to maintain it in the future. It may well be that possession of a licence to practise in such a situation will lend credibility in the provision of a report, but at the present time it is not a condition that MPS requires.
In addition to the requirement to advise the instructing solicitor whether or not they have licence to practise and/or intend to maintain it in the future, MPS requires any doctor conducting a current condition and prognosis consultation/examination involving patient contact to maintain a licence to practise. Whilst this is not a current, explicit GMC requirement, MPS believes it is necessary in order to protect the position of the member should a complaint arise.
We hope that by introducing such criteria for members we will ensure the best possible protection for members carrying out such work.
