Andrew Ritchie, KC

This Practice Note deals with the NHS complaints procedure, relevant legislation, local resolution and independent review by the Ombudsman, private patients and the care quality commission.

This Practice Note relates to clinical negligence claims and deals with the duty of care, the scope of the defendant’s duty, the standard of care, breach of duty, the Bolam test, junior and senior doctors and the burden of proof.

This Practice Note explains the requirements for studying medicine, including the academic and pre-clinical and clinical training, fields covered, levels of specialism, different specialties within hospitals and examples of the type of claim that can arise as well as dealing with the different royal colleges for various clinicians.

This Practice Note deals with the disclosure of medical records in clinical negligence claims. Specific issues which are considered in detail include the right to disclosure of GP and hospital records, the ownership thereof, the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Access to Health Records Act 1990, the evidential status of medical records, disclosure, inspection, reasons for withholding inspection, disclosure against non parties and sanctions.

This Practice Note contains a list of common medical abbreviations and symbols that can be found in clinical records.

Archived: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. It deals with the clinical disputes protocol, obtaining medical records, the letter of claim, the NHSLA, offers to settle, time periods, experts, ADR and costs penalties for failure to comply with the protocol.