MDDUS PROFILE


Takingsides I


In the final article in a series of profiles on legal professionals who provide assistance to MDDUS members Jim Killgore speaks to QC Christina Lambert on the role of the barrister


MAGINE you are a patient just diagnosed with a serious illness. You enter into an unfamiliar and frightening territory of complex tests and investigations, risk assessments and shared


decision-making over a range of treatment options with varying statistical prognoses. Tis is oſten similar to how doctors or dentists feel when faced with clinical negligence claims or regulatory proceedings. A sense of helplessness and lack of control is almost inevitable. Te law can seem a dense and sometimes arcane realm to the


uninitiated. Part of the great value of a medical or dental defence organisation is having ready access to an experienced legal team should you find yourself thrust into that realm. Over the past four articles in this series we have looked at the role of the medical and dental adviser, the in-house solicitor and the clinical expert. Here we speak with QC Christina Lambert on assessing evidence and speaking up for members at legal proceedings in the role of barrister. Te day I meet Christina she is in our Glasgow office to attend a


conference on an upcoming GMC fitness to practise hearing involving one of our members. Te potential consequences could


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PHOTOGRAPH: LIZ GOOD/GOOD IMAGING


hardly be more serious. An adverse ruling could lead to the doctor being struck off the Medical Register and barred from practising his chosen profession. Years of training and experience lost as a result. “Tere is emotion in every case conference to a greater or lesser


extent but this tends to be heightened in GMC cases because the stakes are so very much higher,” says Christina. Long hours are spent going over the evidence in the case – the


records, expert reports, potential witnesses. Tey discuss tactics for the upcoming hearing. “You are looking to deploy to the best effect the arguments that you have,” says Christina. All this background work is essential to help prepare for the day she must stand and argue the member’s case before a GMC panel.


A robust defence In-house solicitors at MDDUS appoint or “instruct” an external barrister like Christina when it is clear that a case is to be litigated in an upper court or before a regulatory panel. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy on behalf of clients – presenting cases, examining and cross-examining witnesses, summing up all the


SUMMONS


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