Leading commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has boosted its growing health practice with two new hires. Associate solicitors Emily Bond and Caroline Oldfield both join the firm’s health team in the Leeds office.

Yesterday the Lord Chancellor announced that, effective as of 5 August 2019, the discount rate used to calculate future losses in personal injury and clinical negligence claims will be adjusted from minus 0.75% to minus 0.25%.

Esegbona -v- King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWHC 77 (QB)

It gives us great pleasure to share news of the appointment of Lisa Nabou, a consultant in health litigation with Hill Dickinson, as a deputy district judge on the Northern Circuit. Lisa has made the

Simmons -v- City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (2018)

James Williams, partner in our employment and pensions team, appears in The Law Society Gazette commenting on the recent surge in employment tribunal claims after the abolishment of tribunal fees.

This year has been an active year for judicial consideration of limitation. So often we have resigned to accept the failure of our attempts to argue a limitation defence at the outset of a claim, but these cases offer a helpful reminder of the relevant considerations.

David Locke, partner in our health litigation team, and Carmel Shachar, executive director at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy at Harvard Law School, consider the impact of globalised medicine on withdrawal of treatment decisions in the UK.

In November 2015, paediatric specialist, Dr Bawa-Garba, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence of a six year old boy under her care. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) suspended her registration for 12 months, but the General Medical Council (GMC) appealed and in January 2018 the High Court ruled that she should be erased from the medical register. Dr Bawa-Garba appealed the decision of the High Court to the Court of Appeal which has re-instated the MPT’s decision.

In November 2015, the paediatric specialist, Dr Bawa-Garba, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) suspended her but the GMC appealed and in January 2018 the High Court ruled that she should be erased from the medical register. She has appealed to the Court of Appeal.

When the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines were introduced in 1999, they were intended to provide ‘evidence-based guidance’ for health practitioners. Since April 2013 the guidelines have extended to social care practitioners. NICE’s website credits the guidelines for improving the outcomes for people using the NHS and other public health and social care services. However, with a recent poll by Pulse Today showing that 76% of 515 English and Welsh GPs, believe NICE guidelines are only at least ‘somewhat relevant’ to their practice; the guidelines’ relevance and importance appears to be being questioned. The same survey revealed that more than 70% of GPs in England and Wales were departing from NICE guidance at least once a month, with one in ten ignoring it daily.