13 October 2019 Blog Quality regulator fines hospital for duty of candour failings This is the second fine the regulator has issued this year for failures in complying with the duty of candour regulation... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read
7 October 2019 Blog Supreme Court decision: 16/17 year olds, parents and consent to confinement The Supreme Court has ruled that where a 16 or 17 year old child cannot/does not give consent to a care regime that would meet the Cheshire West acid test (under "continuous supervision and control" and "not free to leave") this means that court authorisation not parental authorisation is required to make the deprivation of liberty lawful... Share this article Bookmark this page 1 min read
7 October 2019 Blog Redundancy, Agenda for Change and employment tribunal claims The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that separate claims for statutory and contractual redundancy payments can be made in the employment tribunal... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read
6 October 2019 Blog VAT liability: the scope of the exemption for medical laboratory services The ECJ decision in the recent German case of Finanzamt Kyritz v Peters (Case C-700/17) has vindicated HMRC’s policy of treating diagnostic pathology services as VAT-exempt... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read
1 October 2019 Blog Mental capacity and consent to sexual relations – the perceived lacuna What, then, are we to make of A Local Authority v JB ? Is it a legal landmark? Following a hearing in July judgment was handed down last month... Share this article Bookmark this page 4 min read
29 September 2019 Blog Capacity thresholds and the inherent jurisdiction In a recently reported case the High Court adopted the view that it was too “arbitrary” to use the inherent jurisdiction to achieve a deprivation of liberty, while accepting that there were “strong judicial dicta” that say it should be used for “facilitative rather than dictatorial” reasons... Share this article Bookmark this page 4 min read
24 September 2019 Blog Guidance for medical practitioners: when to report a death to the coroner The Ministry of Justice has published guidance to help medical practitioners understand when they are obliged to report a death to the coroner. This guidance comes ahead of the new Notification of Deaths Regulations 2019, which come into force on the 1 October 2019... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read
23 September 2019 Blog Covert medication guidance The Social Care Institute for Excellence and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have produced a quick guide on providing medicines support primarily intended for use by care home and home care managers... Share this article Bookmark this page 1 min read
22 September 2019 Blog Out of hours locum GP was a worker, not self-employed A provider of NHS out of hours GP services has lost its appeal against a ruling that one of the GPs it supplied was a worker, and not self-employed. That is a different outcome to the last time the employment status of out of hours GPs was considered by the Employment Appeal Tribunal... Share this article Bookmark this page 3 min read
18 September 2019 Blog Use of an injunction to protect a vulnerable adult In a judgment dated 5 September 2019, Mr Justice Cobb reviewed whether it had been appropriate for interim injunctions under the inherent jurisdiction to be made to protect a vulnerable adult... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read
16 September 2019 Blog Patient safety: embedding a workplace culture of learning rather than blame Making simple shifts in approach and language to patient safety investigations can be key to changing the culture of health and care organisations... Share this article Bookmark this page 4 min read
21 August 2019 Blog CQC and Mental Health Act Code of Practice Earlier this summer the CQC published this report. The headline being that the Code of Practice is not being used as it was intended due to a lack of awareness and understanding of the statutory guidance amongst providers and staff... Share this article Bookmark this page 2 min read