Blog
Keeping the peace at Christmas – top tips for shared parenting over the festive season
Lauren Evans
5 October 2012
Case Update: Janet Baines v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2012] EWCH 2615
This case examines time limits in legal proceedings: on this occasion the time limit for bringing an appeal in the High Court against a decision of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (‘NMC’).
27 September 2012
Final decision on Bonhoeffer: the financial legacy for the medical profession?
On 25 September 2012, a Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service concluded the long running case of the consultant paediatric cardiologist, Professor Bonhoeffer. The Panel found the registrant to have committed sustained and serious sexual misconduct against children and young people, including patients in his care, over a 13 year period. The result: a finding of impairment and a striking off order.
11 September 2012
E-Regulator: The Role of the Legal Assessor in Fitness to Practise Proceedings
Elizabeth Taheri examines the role of the Legal Assessor in fitness to practise proceedings in light of two recent cases highlighting their responsibilities, in particular where Registrants are neither present, nor represented.
11 September 2012
E-Regulator: Heydon-Burke v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2012] EWHC 2435 (Admin)
When can a healthcare professional appeal against procedural irregularities?
The applicant worked as a police station custody nurse. In 2009, she was presented with a detainee who had taken 10 millilitres of methadone. The applicant administered 20 millilitres of methadone to the detainee, in breach of her employer’s policy which stated that medication should only be administered in the presence of a forensic medical examiner. The applicant recorded that the detainee had taken 30 millilitres of methadone prior to the arrest, failing to document that she had in fact administered 20 millilitres.
11 September 2012
E-Regulator: Press round-up - September 2012
On 3 September 2012, the GMC’s new guidance, Protecting children and young people; the responsibilities of all doctors, comes into effect. All doctors were sent a copy of the guidance in July 2012, which advises on sharing information for child protection purposes. Doctors are regularly faced with emotionally challenging and complicated decisions and can be left having to act against the wishes of parents. The new guidance is aimed at paediatricians, GPs and those directly treating children. Its purpose is to alert doctors to the risks that children face, whether the child is a patient of theirs or not. It encourages them to take appropriate action and includes case studies and a decision-making flow chart to assist doctors to apply the new guidance. Copies of the guidance, case studies and other learning materials are available on the GMC website: http://www.gmc-uk.org/publications/13683.asp