Why are medicolegal issues important?

Medical Protection has drawn on the experiences of other doctors and expert advice from our risk management professionals to bring you this guide to use during your foundation year.

Baby T was eight weeks old when his mother brought him to his GP’s morning surgery. His mother had become increasingly concerned about his general irritability and frequent crying episodes, which lasted up to two hours. These had become apparent over the past three days, not settling with breast feeding.

Mr S was a 60-year-old lorry driver. He was overweight and smoked, and couldn’t walk far because he suffered with pain in his calves.

When Mrs C, a keen golfer in her early forties, began to experience constant pain in her lower back, she consulted a GP at her local surgery. Dr P took a history of slow onset of pain with restricted mobility. He did not examine her, but prescribed an NSAID and advised Mrs C to return in two weeks if there was no improvement.

An elderly patient dies after his prescription goes uncollected. Who is at fault – the GP or the patient’s care home? Medical Protection assisted a member at the resulting inquest.

Dr T’s deskilling in resuscitation leads to a patient death and a claim.

This psychiatric claim underlines the perils of treating those close to you.

Mr U has a hernia repair and is later diagnosed with lung cancer. He makes a claim against two surgeons involved, alleging it should have been identified sooner.

Consent and record-keeping are at the heart of this claim, which sees a patient left paraplegic following an epidural.