Why are medicolegal issues important?

Dr Marika Davies, medicolegal consultant, looks at the recent case of GA v Greater Glasgow Health Board [2019] CSOH 31, where the death of a 77-year-old patient raised questions over where the liability for the negligence lay: the junior doctor or the consultant?

In this video, we look at how red flags for cauda equina syndrome were missed by both GP and hospital, leading to a costly claim.

Ms Q experienced a surgical complication while under the care of Dr G. In this video, find out how Medical Protection supported Dr G when Ms Q pursued a claim and made a complaint to the Medical Council.

Good medical records – whether electronic or handwritten – are essential for the continuity of care of your patients. Adequate medical records enable you or somebody else to reconstruct the essential parts of each patient contact without reference to memory. They should therefore be comprehensive enough to allow a colleague to carry on where you left off.

This video provides some valuable lessons in diagnosis, documentation and the information that needs to be communicated to patients.

A private neurosurgeon faces questions on consent, following a lumbar microdiscectomy sciatica and back pain.

A woman is seen by a consultant gynaecologist, scheduled to have a diagnostic laparoscopy and her copper IUD removed. After the laparoscopy the woman is in pain, which worsens as a diagnosis is missed.

Dr W faces a regulatory hearing after a delayed diagnosis – find out how record-keeping helped the defence.

Mrs D presents to her GP Dr N with a long-standing lesion on her scalp. Dr N removes it but what has he missed?

Ophthalmologist Dr P receives a claim alleging poor consent and technique – but is that the real cause?

Treatment of an itchy rash leads to a claim against GP Dr U, but was he negligent?

After a serious car crash, Dr C is called before an inquest – Medical Protection is called in to support.

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