An out-of-hours doctor who killed a 70-year-old man by injecting him with an overdose of a painkiller could repeat the error, a panel has warned. Nigerian-born Dr Daniel Ubani, 67, injected David Gray, of Manea, Cambridgeshire, with 10 times the recommended dosage of a painkiller. A General Medical Council (GMC) panel is holding a hearing into the case. The panel said Dr Ubani's actions had "brought the profession into disrepute" and questioned his clinical competence.
This Legal Guidance has been agreed in consultation with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Department of Health (DH). Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions said: "We were made aware of rising concerns among pharmacists' professional bodies in relation to prosecuting offences under the Medicines Act 1968 where a dispensing error has occurred. The MHRA subsequently approached us with a view to creating guidance for prosecutors and we have worked together to reach agreement. "We welcome this cooperation between our departments and believe that this Legal Guidance will ensure high quality decision making and consistency of approach when prosecutors come to consider such cases."
Two children in Northern Ireland whose white mother was mistakenly impregnated with sperm from South Africa labelled “Caucasian (Cape Coloured)” during in vitro fertilisation have failed in a compensation claim at the High Court in Belfast. The children’s mother, who brought the case on their behalf, claimed that their quality of life was adversely affected because they looked markedly different from their parents and had quite different skin colour from each other. She said that they were subject to “abusive and derogatory comment and hurtful name calling from other children, causing emotional upset.” But Mr Justice Gillen ruled that they had not suffered any loss or damage for which the law could compensate them.
A cardiac surgeon with an international reputation has been given a formal warning by the General Medical Council for undertaking an “adventurous” procedure for which he was not adequately trained and for which he did not obtain informed consent.
A cancer patient who was supposed to receive regular check ups says he was devastated when he was finally seen and told the disease had spread. Retired teacher Henry Clark from Narberth, Pembrokeshire, needed three-monthly check ups at West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. But "serious failures" meant he was not seen for more than a year. Hywel Dda Health Board has been criticised for what happened and has apologised.
Tony, 47, and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, of Chandlers Quay, Maldon, who were Britain's first gay surrogate parents, denied one charge of providing false information to an ethics panel. The pair, who ran Euroderm Research, also deny two counts of not conforming to protocol when conducting a trial. The pair appeared before Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday. They also deny two charges of conducting a clinical trial otherwise than in accordance of good clinical practice.
This article examines the reliance placed on expert evidence in prosecutions of health professionals for gross negligence manslaughter, where juries must decide whether conduct goes beyond civil negligence and constitutes the crime of involuntary manslaughter. It argues that the test for liability is vague and examines some of the consequences of this. Given the vagueness of the offence, jurors are likely to place great reliance on expert medical evidence. Little is known about how experts negotiate the legal process, empirically speaking: how they approach their task, how they view their role as expert witnesses, and the attitudes, biases, and beliefs that may underpin their testimony. Drawing on the experiences and perceptions often medical experts, this article explores how experts manage the vagueness inherent in the task of interpreting and applying gross negligence. Experts appear to go beyond offering purely medical opinion and enjoy engaging with law and the legal process.
In a recent case in the UK, six men stored their sperm before undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer in case they proved to be infertile after the treatment. The sperm was not properly stored and as a result was inadvertently destroyed. The men sued the NHS Trust that stored the sperm and were in the end successful. This paper questions the basis on which the judgement was made and the rationale behind it, namely that the men ‘had ownership’ of the sperm, and that compensation was thus due on the grounds that the men's property had been destroyed.
A patient woke up from surgery at Halifax Hospital Medical Center last month to find her surgeon had operated on the wrong leg. But, that's not how the cardiovascular surgeon explained it to her, according to a report from Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, which investigated the July 3 incident. Instead, the surgeon told the patient that her other leg needed to be done anyway. Then he asked her to sign a consent after the fact, according to the report.