What kind of advice should I seek?
It is difficult to anticipate all the medico-legal matters that can crop up. If you are unsure about whether you need medico-legal advice, you can call the helpline and talk things through.
By way of example, the medico-legal helpline typically assists with:
- Consent, treatment risk, and best interests evaluations;
- Mental health and mental capacity treatment issues, including Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards;
- Professional Conduct obligations in any particular situation;
- Emergency treatment orders, injunctions and withholding treatment;
- Issues regarding to entries in Patient records, eg where records have been lost, or damaged, or contain errors;
- Patient confidentiality;
- Requests for disclosure of records from patients or their families;
- Requests to provide evidence — if you are asked to provide evidence in respect of your patients to third parties (such as to the police, or in relation to legal proceedings);
- Assistance with the very earliest stages of a complaint or claim, or complaint to the GMC ;
- Inquests – you may become involved in giving evidence at a Coroner's inquest, even if there is no criticism of your treatment.
What information should I bring to the call?
You should provide a precis/summary of the background to your situation (it is useful to have some bullet points to hand), to discuss with the medico-legal adviser. Please retain copies of any relevant correspondence or documentation in order to send this on, if requested.
Examples of expert support
The medico-legal team have the expertise with many medico-legal calls to help prevent clinical disputes from escalating into claims, and thereby reducing your claims and insurance history. These include helping to resolve complaints at the outset, assisting with duty of candour explanations, and advising on requests from patients for refunds, apologies, compensation or remedial treatment. Recent anonymised cases include the following:
Case A
A Consultant Plastic Surgeon received a complaint from a patient regarding the outcome of facelift surgery. The patient complained post-operatively with the outcome and said she should have been offered a more extensive face-lift rather than the mini-lift surgery performed. We provided support and advice to the Consultant and, during our discussions, agreed with them to promptly negotiate a partial refund payment to the patient, with no admission of liability. This prevented the complaint from escalating into a claim and saved the Consultant time and additional cost.
Case B
A Consultant General Surgeon received a referral to the GMC from a patient regarding alleged inappropriate behaviour during a consultation. Our healthcare regulatory team supported the Consultant and this resulted in the GMC taking no fitness-to-practice proceedings against the Consultant.
Case C
A Consultant General Surgeon sought guidance after they were called to give evidence to a Coroner's Inquest, in relation to surgery they had performed on a patient who died 4 weeks following surgery. We were able to provide support behind the scenes such that the Consultant's treatment was not criticised or implicated at the Inquest, resulting in no claim or further action against the surgeon.
Be assured calls and discussion are completely confidential. The medico-legal team respond to thousands of calls annually and have significant expertise insured doctors can draw on. If you have any concerns, please call 0203 393 3273 so the team can support you.
Aon UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 00210725. Registered Office: The Aon Centre, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AN. Tel: 020 7623 5500. Telephone calls are charged at a local rate and may be recorded and monitored.
The following products or services provided by Aon UK Limited are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority:
- 24/7 medico-legal support
- claims handling (claims and regulatory)
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