Blog
Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
10 August 2015
Case Update: Court of Appeal find GMC wrongly applied ‘5 year rule’ and confirms regulators have powers to revoke any decision where there was a mistake regarding underlying facts
29 July 2015
R (on the application of Dr Anup Chaudhuri v the General Medical Council [2015] EWCA 6621 (Admin)
Background
The Claimant, Dr Chaudhuri, a general practitioner (‘Dr C’), applied for Judicial Review of the GMC’s decision pursuant to Rule 4(5) of the General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules 2004 (‘the 5 year rule’), which is set out below:
“No allegation shall proceed further, if at the time it is first made or first comes to the attention of the General Council, more than five-years have elapsed since the most recent events giving rise to the allegation, unless the Registrar considers that it is in the public interest, in the exceptional circumstances of the case, for it to proceed.”
10 August 2015
Grant of POCA powers to additional bodies welcomed by those who enforce and prosecute regulatory crime
The director of a security company who is prepared to supply unlicensed and untrained guards to his customers, places public safety at risk and acquires significant commercial benefit from that conduct. The operator of a food business that sells off inferior products by labelling them as a better quality product, places public health at risk and acquires a significant financial benefit from that conduct.
Society demands that those who choose to engage in criminal conduct should not obtain a financial benefit from their crimes. To give effect to that principle it follows that those agencies tasked with the important job of investigating and prosecuting regulatory crime should have necessary enforcement tools at their disposal to strip defendants of the proceeds of their crimes.
30 July 2015
High Court confirms that only in ‘very strong cases’ should appellate courts disturb a Professional panel’s previous findings
Smart v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2015] EWHC 1807 (Admin)
Judgement date: 1st July 2015
On 17 December 2004, Mr Smart was convicted of theft of various prescription drugs at Chelmsford Crown Court and sentenced to a community punishment order of 90 hours. Following this conviction, the NMC brought fitness to practise proceedings, and in 2007, Mr Smart was struck of the Register as a result of his conviction. He subsequently reapplied to join the Register, and was reinstated on 14 April 2010. Mr Smart then began employment at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (‘the Trust’) as a Band 5 Staff Nurse within the Clinical Haematology Department at Hammersmith Hospital.
30 July 2015
Press Round-Up: Regulatory and Professional Discipline: July – August 2015
Recent news relating to the Bar Standards Board (BSB), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), General Medical Council (GMC), General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
30 July 2015
Case Update: High Court hold that panel of the NMC were unduly lenient in imposing 4 month suspension for dishonest nurse
Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care v Nursing and Midwifery Council, Mr D Wilson, [2015] EWHC 1887 (Admin)
Judgement Date: 5 June 2015
This was an appeal brought by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) pursuant to section 29 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Professions Act from a decision made by a Panel of the Conduct and Competence Committee (the Panel) of the NMC on 9 January 2015 to suspend the registrant of Mr Wilson for 4 months. The appeal was supported by the NMC. Both the Authority and the NMC submit that the decision of the Panel on sanction in this particular case was wrong, and they invited the learned Judge to quash the suspension and to substitute the suspension for an order striking Mr Wilson off the register.
