Organisations led by doctors and nurses are helping professionals amplify their voices and campaign for change Campaigning for change: Kaveri Jalundhwala, Pushpo Hossain, Rosie Shire - photo from FT full article…
Hadiza Bawa-Garba has been allowed to practise again without restrictions, 10 years after a 6 year old boy in her care died of septic shock following a mistaken diagnosis of…
MANCHESTER—A doctor who received a suspended jail sentence over the death of a 6-year-old boy can return to unrestricted practice, a medical tribunal has ruled. Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba returned to…
Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba’s application to have her medical licence fully restored was granted today by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). The Doctors’ Association UK have supported Dr Bawa-Garba throughout her case…
Dr Jenny Vaughan, DAUK’s Law and Policy officer writes for the BMJ about the case which has rocked medicine more than any other in recent times. Read her analysis as…
Today, there is widespread relief amongst the medical profession. However, the verdict is no cause for celebration. At the heart of this case is a child, Jack Adcock, who tragically lost his life to sepsis. Our hearts go out to the Adcock family as they continue to grief for Jack. When a child dies it is our duty as doctors to do all we can to prevent the same tragedy from occurring again. We strongly feel that scapegoating an individual doctor or clinician for human errors made whilst whilst working under enormous pressure, does not serve this purpose. Instead, the criminalisation of medical error creates a culture of fear and blame, where clinicians feel afraid to speak up, afraid to reflect, and afraid to learn when things go wrong. Therefore we welcome the verdict of the Medical Tribunal Practitioners Service today, who, after considering all the system failures and the context in which Dr Bawa-Garba made errors, has found her safe to return to medical practice.
We are grateful to BMJ for publishing this paper, written by our Law and Policy Officer Dr Jenny Vaughan in conjunction with Dr Ameratunga, Dr Klonin Dr Merry and Dr Cusack, and giving it front page profile. We hope it will be a game-changer for the UK and that no other clinicians, be they doctors, nurses or optometrists will find themselves in front of a criminal court unless they have recklessly and wilfully caused death.
