A case-study in witness credibility: Deakin-Stephenson v Behar & Anor [2024] EWHC 2338 (KB)

A case-study in witness credibility: Deakin-Stephenson v Behar & Anor [2024] EWHC 2338 (KB) Amelia Williams Background: In November 2016 the Claimant collapsed with acute abdominal pain whilst in a hairdresser in Fulham, London. Investigations at A&E revealed that she had developed diverticulitis with a localised perforation. Her surgeon, Mr…

Bolam, Bolitho and Informed Consent

Bolam, Bolitho and Informed Consent Dominic Ruck Keene McCulloch and Others v Forth Valley Health Board [2023] UKSC 26 The Supreme Court has given an authoritative re-statement of the application of the ‘Professional Practice Test’ or ‘Bolam’ test in the context of informed consent.  This was a Scottish case, but…

Reasonable Alternative Treatments

Reasonable Alternative Treatments Jeremy Hyam KC Bilal v St Georges University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2023] EWCA Civ 605 This Court of Appeal decision was given on 13 June 2023 (after the oral hearing in McCulloch and others v Forth Valley Health Board [2023] UKSC 26 [see pages 9-11 of…

“Let the Doctors Decide”

Bell and A v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and others [2021] EWCA Civ 1363 In Bell and A v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and others [2021] EWCA Civ 1363 the Court of Appeal advised judges to avoid formulating policy in an area of social and moral complexity. Ever…

Montgomery and “Reasonable Alternatives”

Malik v St George’s University Hospitals NHSFT [2021] EWHC 1913 (QB) This was a claim about spinal surgery, specifically whether a revision decompression at T10/11 was appropriately advised and whether the Claimant had been adequately advised of reasonable alternative or variant treatments to the surgery which ultimately worsened rather than…

Parental Consent and Puberty Blockers: the fall out from Bell

AB v CD & Ors [2021] EWHC 741 (Fam) In the last issue of QMLR this author considered the High Court’s decision in Bell v Tavistock, which concerned whether children were capable of consenting to puberty blockers (“PBs”) as treatment for gender dysphoria. A three-judge panel in the Divisional Court…

Children, Informed Consent and Puberty Blockers

Bell & Anor v The Tavistock And Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin) Introduction This was a claim for judicial review of the practice of the Defendant’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) and two other Trusts joined as Interveners (University College London and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trusts)…

Informed Consent

Alan McNab and Others v Greater Glasgow Health Board [2020] CSOH 53 Plant v El-Amir [2020] EWHC 2902 (QB) Updated GMC Guidance on Consent, effective from 9 November 2020 On 9th November 2020, new guidance from the GMC came into force with respect to informed consent. This guidance was produced…

Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board: 5 Years on – an Impact Assessment in Numbers

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 (September 2020). Introduction  On 11 March 2015 the UK Supreme Court gave judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11. For both medical professionals and lawyers practising in the field of clinical negligence it is a landmark judgment and the first…

Monitoring During Labour

NKX v Barts Health NHS Trust [2020] EWHC 839 (QB)  This article originally appeared in Issue 6 (September 2020). The Facts  This was a liability only hearing where the Claimant alleged that his mother was given insufficient warning that she should have continuous fetal monitoring (“CFM”) when she was in…