Complaints against doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals continue to increase every year. Being the subject of an investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC), General Dental Council (GDC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) or other healthcare regulators such as the General Optical Council (GOC) or General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is perhaps one of the most difficult and stressful experiences you could face in your professional career. Apart from the potential damage to your professional reputation, your career and livelihood, there’s also the danger of a police investigation and criminal charges.
That’s why you need professional legal advice that is informed, insightful and supportive. We are top-ranked in the legal directories and offer one of the strongest teams in the market, with genuine depth and breadth of expertise in the sector.
We act for doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, opticians, optometrists, speech therapists, mental health professionals and alternative medicine practitioners and offer specialist advice and representation in the following areas:
- Complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)
- Coroner’s inquests (advising on requests by the coroner for witness statements and providing specialist representation at the final hearing)
- CQC investigations
- Data protection
- Defamation
- Employment matters (including disciplinary issues, unfair and constructive dismissal, settlement agreements, bullying, harassment and discrimination in the workplace)
- Court proceedings in which your professional judgement falls to be scrutinised
- Freedom of information requests
- GMC, GDC, NMC, GOC, GPhC and HCPC investigations
- Interim Orders Tribunal (IOT) or Interim Orders Committee (IOC) hearings
- Investigations by employing NHS Trusts under Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS (MHPS)
- Investigations by NHS England
- Judicial review
- Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearings, General Dental Council hearings or hearings before the Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Optical Council, General Pharmaceutical Council and Health and Care Professions Council
- Police interviews, investigations and criminal prosecutions, whether related to the practice of your profession, personal life or organisational regulatory compliance
- Registration appeals (advising and representing students at the end of their academic training, foreign/oversees trained doctors and dentists and doctors seeking return to the profession)
We can assist you from the earliest stages of your case, adopting a proactive stance to resolve patient grievances and prevent escalation. Our priority is always to protect your interests.
Early investigation helps us to spot any weaknesses in the other side’s case (be that your employing or contracting Trust, professional regulator or other body) and enables us to identify the right mitigation and remediation strategies.
We provide regular and straightforward communication throughout the process, giving you an honest assessment of your position, including potential outcomes and risks ahead of the hearing and beyond. This is where our disciplinary and regulatory experience defending healthcare professionals is most valuable to you.
There is virtually no healthcare scenario we have not encountered. By adopting a global view of the case, we remain alive to the legal consequences flowing from a single action. These may go beyond a disciplinary or regulatory investigation, including an official inquiry, clinical negligence claim, inquest or a criminal prosecution. Seeing the full picture enables us to adopt a comprehensive strategy to protect you.
Our specialist lawyers are also able to deal with the host of legal issues that often arise in connection to disciplinary proceedings, including considerations around data protection, freedom of information, defamation, human rights and judicial review.
