Dr Rachel Birch, medicolegal consultant and editor-in-chief of Practice Matters, shares a recent case where a member sought advice regarding consent for childhood immunisation.

Dr Rachel Birch, medicolegal consultant, provides practical tips to ensure you have systems in place to treat children and young people safely.

Is the patient’s son entitled to access his mother’s confidential information? Where a patient lacks capacity clinicians should consider what action is in the patient’s best interests.

Are we obliged to facilitate a request for CCTV footage of the practice car park? You need to consider the confidentiality of other patients. Dr Rachel Birch, medicolegal consultant, answers a member’s query.

Gross negligence manslaughter is a topical issue in healthcare, but cases against doctors are still comparatively rare. Dr John Jolly, head of member risk education and Dr Richard Stacey, head of policy and technical, look at a more common cause of criminal cases brought against members of Medical Protection: sexual assault.

The case of Dr Bawa-Garba and the resulting collision between the medical community and the criminal justice system, sent shockwaves around the world. Dr Richard Stacey, head of policy and technical at Medical Protection, analyses criminal cases handled by MPS in 2017 to gauge the likelihood of further charges of gross negligence manslaughter.

Gross negligence manslaughter is a topical issue in healthcare, but cases against doctors are still comparatively rare. Dr John Jolly, head of member risk education and Dr Richard Stacey, head of policy and technical, look at a more common cause of criminal cases brought against members of Medical Protection: sexual assault.

The case of Dr Bawa-Garba and the resulting collision between the medical community and the criminal justice system, sent shockwaves around the world. Dr Richard Stacey, head of policy and technical at Medical Protection, analyses criminal cases handled by MPS in 2017 to gauge the likelihood of further charges of gross negligence manslaughter.

A common cause of claims at Medical Protection is injection errors. While generally low in value, they frequently cause anxiety to patients and clinicians, and are easily avoided. Dr Dawn McGuire, Medical Claims Adviser at Medical Protection, looks at some typical cases.

A patient presents with a sore wrist after a fall.

A patient’s solicitor sought disclosure of a GMC expert report after a case had been closed. Medical Protection successfully challenged this, only for the decision to be overturned at appeal. Kirsty Sharp, content editor at Medical Protection, looks at the challenges of making a challenge

Mrs F, a 30-year-old housewife, visited her GP, Dr O, with a four-week history of diarrhoea. Dr O arranged a stool sample for microscopy and culture (which was negative) and prescribed codeine. Four months later, Mrs F was still having diarrhoea, especially after meals, and she had started to notice some weight loss. She returned to the surgery and this time saw Dr P, who examined her and found nothing remarkable, but decided to refer her to gastroenterology in view of her persistent symptoms.