A digest of some interesting cases over the last 12 months:-
- Disciplinary
- Inquests
- Regulatory
- Brain Stem Testing
DISCIPLINARY – Dr Syed Farhan Hyder v. GMC [2024] EWHC 2945 (Admin)
Erasure from the Medical Register was considered an entirely appropriate sanction pursuant to s.40 Medical Act 1983 where the appellant had dishonestly made false representations as to his medical qualifications.
DISCIPLINARY – Dr Sarah Benn v. GMC [2025] EWHC 87 (Admin)
Participation in Just Stop Oil protests amounts to misconduct that impairs fitness to practice.
INQUESTS – Ferguson, R (on the application of) v. HM Assistant Coroner [2025] EWHC 1901
On judicial review the Coroner’s decisions that (i) the enhanced investigative duty under Article 2 ECHR was not engaged, and (ii) the inquest would be heard without a jury, were quashed where ‘the evidence, primarily in the Chief Constable’s own PSD report, revealed a series of acts or omissions by the officers which could have played a part in… [the] death’.
REGULATORY – Anaesthetists United & Ors, R (on the application of) v. GMC [2025] EWHC 2270
While Physician Associates (PAs) and Anaesthesia Associates (AAs) are currently only advised ‘to say that they are not medically qualified if they are engaged in a task or function that a patient might reasonably expect a doctor to perform’, and despite there being ‘ample evidence that patients and the wider public do not know or understand how an associate differs from a doctor’ and concerns that their use ‘poses systemic risks to patient safety’, the GMC has not failed in its duty to regulate PAs and AAs, placing responsibility squarely on their employers and insurers.
BRAIN STEM TESTING – A London NHS Trust v. DT & Ors [2025] EWCOP 36 Prior to the diagnosis of death through the 2025 Code[of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death] the individual concerned Is not dead as a matter of law – MCA 2005 applies and consequently in the absence of agreement for brain stem testing to be carried out, or the arrangements for them, an application should be made to the Court of Protection to determine best interests.