Bill Harvey: Keeping the ambulance chasers at bay

This week sees the first in a series we aim to publish over the coming year looking at the legal framework within which eye care practitioners perform, and with a particular emphasis on litigation After building the background to the current legal environment we work within, citing some key cases that have influenced this, the process of litigation will be discussed along with a detailed discussion of how to avoid being on the receiving end.

Analyses of GOC investigations show how, contrary to many people’s expectations, cases most often hinge around poor record keeping or communication. It may not be that the ‘flashing lights’ were not assessed properly that is the key, for example, but rather that a perfectly valid reason not to do so at the first point of contact was neither recorded nor explained adequately to the patient or other clinician involved. In the latter half of the year, and linked with the series, we will be publishing some anonymised case records for you to analyse and then to act as legal arbiter as to their validity – a sort of legal ‘you are the ref’, as some older readers may remember from Shoot comic.