Clinicians must practice medicine in conformity with regulatory requirements. That is the daily challenge, and those requirements have been founded on medical law.
This book describes clinical law. A series of 62 brief commentaries are described, each setting out an important clinical legal case decided in an English court. The clinical relevance of the judgement is explained, together with how it should influence the care of the patient. Clinical readers are given skeleton guidance by their regulators, but almost no specific tuition as to how to apply it. This book sets out how clinical law has been applied in numerous cases, and thus provides guidance which is directly applicable to every clinician’s practice in the United Kingdom.
Although most court cases concentrate on the medical aspects of patients’ care, the common currencies within clinical law touch on all clinical professions. Doctors, physiotherapists and others take consent every day; pharmacists must protect confidentiality; speech therapists consider the capacity of their patients; and nurses wrestle with discussions relating to whether their patients wish to be resuscitated
The book is directed at members of the eight regulated clinical professions, the lawyers who deal with disputes, and all potential patients.
About the Author
Robert Wheeler, RCS MS LLB(Hons) LLM is a Consultant Neonatal and Paediatric Surgeon. He is the Associate Medical Director for the Department of Clinical Law, University Hospital of Southampton, Southampton Hampshire, England and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton.
https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/HealthProfessionals/Clinical-law-updates/Clinicallawupdates.aspx
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Adults who refuse blood
2. Discussing the prospects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation
3. What should be disclosed when seeking consent
4. Deprivation in Essex
5. The first glimpse of a duty to warn?
6. Can a patient choose her surgeon?
7. Sentiments
8. Unwise decisions
9. Consulting relatives
10. Doctrine of double effect
11. Needle Phobia
12. Candid over complications
13. Examining patients with their consent
14. Covert treatment
15. Can blood be compulsorily administered under the Mental Health Act 1983?
16. Genetic confidentiality
17. Refusing hospital discharge
18. Consent for a cannula
19. Changing direction in severe anorexia
20. Be informed; then disclose
21. Withdrawing treatment in a young man
22. The value of going to court
23. Articulating best interests
24. Loyal Friends
25. Apply to court?
26. Disclosing the miniscule risk when seeking consent
27. Obtaining consent
28. Deprivation of Liberty; the story so far
29. Falling from hospital property
30. Gross negligence manslaughter: Perhaps better, "betrayal of trust"?
31. Interpretation
32. A narrow dispute
33. A right to be told?
34. "But all life is an experiment"
35. Avoid discouraging patients from waiting to be treated
36. Mixed messages
37. It is for clinicians to identify foreseeable risks
38. Separating twins
39. Body modification
40. Seeking the approval of a court for paternity testing
41. Children refusing treatment
42. Can we rely on our Advance Decisions?
43. Is there a role for ‘next of kin’?
44. Preaching to patients
45. Deceiving patients
46. Determining incapacity
47. Reasons for refusing blood?
48. Justifying the termination of a pregnancy
49. The feasibility of a covert Caesarean section
50. Communicating risk: Words or numbers?
51. Stark compulsion in grave circumstances
52. Going to court too soon
53. Best interests in the absence of suffering
54. Patients value candour
55. Informed Consent & Informed Dissent: Two sides of a coin?
56. Parental consent for their child’s deprivation of liberty.
57. Vulnerable with capacity
58. Compulsory treatment for diabetes
59. Approving palliation
60. Acquiescence; not consent
61. Making clinical legal decisions
Biography
Robert Wheeler, RCS MS LLB(Hons) LLM is a Consultant Neonatal and Paediatric Surgeon. He is the Associate Medical Director for the Department of Clinical Law, University Hospital of Southampton, Southampton Hampshire, England and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton.
https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/HealthProfessionals/Clinical-law-updates/Clinicallawupdates.aspx
