Building resilience and avoiding burnout
The demand placed on modern clinicians means the possibility of burnout is growing significantly, impacting both the quality of care and potential increase in risk to patients. This workshop will help you recognise the signs of burnout and give you the knowledge and confidence to manage the symptoms to recover as well as prevent reoccurrence.
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Accidental anaesthetic awareness
A patient makes a claim against an anaesthetist member following intra-operative accidental awareness, which she alleged resulted in psychiatric injury.
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Should I report that my patient is unfit to drive?
Medical Protection advice line often receives queries from doctors concerned about patients that are driving whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Kate Cowan, advisory case manager, shares our advice.
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Can your practice staff also be your patients?
Situations where a doctor is both an employer and the treating clinician of a patient are problematic and should be avoided. Sarah Pickering, advisory case manager at Medical Protection, looks at a recent query from the advice line
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Medical Protection successfully defends GP practice in fatal sepsis case
Medical Protection successfully defends GP practice in fatal sepsis case
Medical Protection litigation solicitor Suzanne Tate looks at a claim involving a missed diagnosis of sepsis and the work of Medical Protection in successfully defending seven GP members
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Accidental anaesthetic awareness
A patient makes a claim against an anaesthetist member following intra-operative accidental awareness, which she alleged resulted in psychiatric injury.
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An early presentation
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.
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Missed critical limb ischaemia
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.
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Back again with cauda equina syndrome
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.
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Non-compliant patient sues doctor: whose fault is it?
Whilst doctors have a duty of care for their patients, and their primary concern should be their wellbeing, how do we establish patient responsibility for their own wellbeing? Dr Dawn McGuire, Medical Claims Adviser, looks into contributory negligence and whether we can define patient responsibility.
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An uncollected prescription
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.
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Treating asthma over the phone
Dr T’s deskilling in resuscitation leads to a patient death and a claim.
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Delayed diagnosis of lung cancer
Paraplegia follows epidural
Consent and record-keeping are at the heart of this claim, which sees a patient left paraplegic following an epidural.
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Video: A Nitrofurantoin Problem
A doctor's failure to link raised ALT levels with a patient's use of nitrofurantoin led to a complaint being brought against them. Watch this short video to find out how the situation arose and advice Medical Protection gave.
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A tale of two doctors: the junior and the consultant
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?
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A potted history of medicine
Throughout history, doctors have treated patients, and doctors have made mistakes. We delve deep into the past to see what doctors used to get away with
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Withdrawing treatment: the legal position
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that healthcare professionals across the UK no longer need to seek legal permission to withdraw treatment from patients in a permanent vegetative state
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Should you mention death when the risk is small?
When consenting for a procedure, wherever there is a risk of death – no matter how small – would you always mention this risk?
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End of life care
When treating a patient who is close to death, clear communication and collective decision-making are as important as any clinical intervention
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Communicating with families post-death
Guidance from NHS England underlines the importance of clear and honest communication when treating a patient who has reached the end of life.
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Problems arise from spinal anaesthesia
A 48-year-old man underwent abdominoplasty and liposuction. At the pre-operative visit, the consultant anaesthetist proposed general anaesthesia along with a spinal anaesthetic for the purpose of post-operative pain relief.
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