CONTENTS
IN THIS ISSUE “YOU have still not claimed the compensation you are due for the accident you had. To claim then pls reply CLAIM.” So reads the automated text message sent out to thousands of mobile phone users from a server in India. Each message costs 2p to send and the mobile number of
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anyone who replies is sold for £5 to a UK firm. This particular reply is followed up by a call from “Andy” who discovers that the client has by chance had a recent accident – tripped on a step outside work and broke an ankle. Details are taken and the lead is eventually sold on to solicitors paying between £300 and £350 in the hope that it will lead to a lucrative compensation claim with a success fee stretching to five figures. It’s called “claims farming” and in June 2011, The Sunday elegraphran a feature exposing the practice – which is also
now squarely in the firing line of proposed legal reforms published by Lord Justice Rupert Jackson. On page 10 Justice
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A HUMBLING DEDICATION – THE RETURN
MDDUS medical adviser Riaz Mohammed makes a return visit to see progress at a hospital serving a desperately poor population in North India
professionals – Summonseditor Jim Killgore talks to Claire Renton about her role as dental adviser
14 16 16
Cover image: Memory of an April Wood, by Lyndsay Ann Rutherford. 1997. Medium: oil on canvas. Size: 152 x 152cm. Lyndsay was born in Glasgow and graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1997 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art (Drawing and Painting). Her work is a distillation
of landscapes both as something seen and as something experienced and remembered. Art in Healthcare (formerly Paintings in Hospitals Scotland) works with hospitals and healthcare communities across Scotland to encourage patients, visitors and staff to enjoy and engage with the visual arts. For more information visit
www.artinhealthcare.org.uk, Scottish Charity No: SC 036222.
SPRING 2012
CLINICAL RISK REDUCTION Professor Duncan Empey
addresses the sometimes vexing question – when to refer in an adult patient presenting with chest infection?
Editor:
Jim Killgore Associate editor: Joanne Curran
Editorial departments: MEDICAL Dr Gail Gilmartin DENTAL Mr Aubrey Craig LEGAL Simon Dinnick RISK Peter Johnson
DENTIST TO DENTIST Second in a series on MDDUS
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Jackson answers questions on his attempt to address the spiralling civil litigation costs that burden the NHS and tax payers many millions of pounds each year – as well as MDDUS members.
Dealing with a compensation culture is part of the daily job
of MDDUS dental adviser Claire Renton. In the second part of our series on the professionals who work with the Union (p 14) I chat with Claire about how she helps dentists face what sometimes seems a tide of blame. In this issue we also look at the dento-legal implications of
patients travelling abroad for low cost treatments (p 18). What obligations do UK clinicians have to these dental tourists? And on page 16, Professor Duncan Empey offers guidance for GPs on how to best address the vexing question of when to refer in cases of chest infection.
Jim Killgore, editor
NON-ACCIDENTAL TOURIST Dental adviser Doug Hamilton
offers a pragmatic view on patients seeking dental treatment abroad
REGULARS 4 Notice Board 6 News Digest 8 Employment law: Disciplinary matters 9 Ethics: To err is ethical? 10 Q&A: Lord Justice Rupert Jackson 20 Case studies: Wait and see?, Not on the X- ray, Journey home 22 Addenda: Card notice and surgeon’s waistcoat, The case of the missing teeth, Crossword and Vignette: geneticist Julia Bell
Please address correspondence to:
SummonsEditor MDDUS Mackintosh House 120 Blythswood Street Glasgow G2 4EA
jkillgore@mddus.com
Design and production: CMYK Design 0131 556 2220
www.cmyk-design.co.uk
Printing and distribution: L&S Litho
Summonsis published quarterly by The Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, registered in Scotland No 5093 at Mackintosh House, 120 Blythswood Street, Glasgow G2 4EA. • Tel: 0845 270 2034 • Fax: 0141 228 1208
Email: General:
info@mddus.com • Membership services:
membership@mddus.com • Marketing:
marketing@mddus.com • Website:
www.mddus.com The MDDUS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MDDUS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association. The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in Summons are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of The Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland.
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