4 CONTRIBUTORS
Dr Stephanie Bown Editor-in-chief
Fighting back against online attacks
Gareth Gillespie Editor
MPS Medical Director Dr Priya Singh calls for global action against internet defamation
Sara Williams Assistant editor and senior writer
Sarah Whitehouse Assistant editor and writer
Dr Monica Lalanda Medical writer
EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr Tina Ambury, Dr Nick Clements, Dr Marika Davies, Dr Lyn Griffiths, Dr Graham Howarth, Dr Jonathan Jones, Dr Su Jones, Dr Sonya McCullough, Dr Jayne Molodynski, Rachel Morris, Dr Amanda Platts, Dr Ming-Keng Teoh
PRODUCTION
Production manager – Philip Walker Design – Jayne Perfect Print – TU Ink
CASE REPORT WRITERS Dr Sara Chambers Dr Sam Dresner
Education update: What to do when something goes wrong
Dr Anna Fox Dr Anusha Kailasanathan Dr Monica Lalanda
Despite our best intentions and efforts, healthcare will always have adverse outcomes. Most clinicians will have experienced a patient coming to them to express disappointment with the outcome of their treatment. Responding to patients in this scenario can be very challenging and our natural instinct can often be to say nothing and hope it will go away. Unfortunately this is exactly the
Dr Gurminder Matharu Dr Sally Stucke Dr Ellen Welch
wrong thing to do. Evidence suggests that non-disclosure of error increases the likelihood of patients seeking legal advice/initiating action (Mazor et al 2006, Witman et al 1996). Effective and open communication after an adverse outcome may reduce the risk of patient action against a doctor. To assist you in handling adverse outcomes MPS has developed
Dr Jonathan Wild
PLEASE ADDRESS CORRESPONDENCE TO Casebook Editor, Medical Protection Society, Granary Wharf House, Leeds LS11 5PY, UK.
casebook@mps.org.uk
Visit
www.medicalprotection.org/uk/education for details of MPS events, courses and workshops in your area
Mastering Adverse Outcomes, one of the workshops available in MPS’s “Mastering” series of communication skills workshops. Mastering Adverse Outcomes covers the effective and ethical management of patient care following an adverse outcome, and provides you with the knowledge and techniques required to enhance your skills in communicating with patients when something has gone wrong. Workshops will be available in locations across the UK and as a member of MPS you can attend free of charge as a benefit of your membership. For further information on Mastering Adverse Outcomes, including forthcoming dates and online booking, please visit
www.mps.org.uk/workshops.
about them on the internet. This can take a number of forms, such as discussion forums, other websites containing a feedback element, or as a result of individual campaigns by patients dissatisfied with care received. Whether the content is written by members of the public posting anonymously or by identifiable individuals, it is rare that the circumstances offer the subject of the material a right of reply. Whilst MPS would not wish to
M
restrict freedom of expression and fair comment, we do feel that members in these circumstances deserve a right of reply and/or redress, and it is therefore important that new legal frameworks around the world are created to reflect this. This is less problematic in instances
embers are increasingly facing the very distressing situation of material having been posted
where the website host properly moderates the content available on their website or is able to offer a right of reply. Increasingly the process is more difficult and may even lead to a situation where there is no mechanism for challenging false or defamatory material. It is therefore of importance that website hosts continue to have liability for the content they publish. We are seeing the courts beginning
to recognise the impact and importance of these issues. As an example, where an internet campaign was a part of a wide range of harassment suffered by a member, we have been successful in obtaining an order prohibiting such internet attacks. These successes help us to continue to make strong representations on behalf of members, to ensure that legislators understand the devastation that such campaigns can cause.
YOUR MPS
UNITED KINGDOM CASEBOOK | VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 2012
www.mps.org.uk
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