On the 19th of May, the School of Law and Graduate Entry Medical School hosted an interdisciplinary conference ‘Medical Error and the Healthcare Profession: Perspectives and Lessons from Practice’, which united a range of medico-legal experts on key areas of the law, and attracted both legal and medical practitioners.
The conference saw speakers provide detailed insights into the civil, criminal, and regulatory responses to medical error. Dr. Ciaran Craven SC and Asim Sheikh considered ongoing developments in medical negligence litigation in the first panel of the day, whilst the second panel explored the response of the criminal law to medical error, with Dr. Danielle Griffiths (University of Sussex), Dr. Alexandra Mullock (University of Manchester), and Dr. Eimear Spain (UL) highlighting the problematic nature of the offence of gross negligence manslaughter in a medical context. The third panel provided insights into the regulation of error and the role of sanctions, wherein Dr. Anthony Breslin (Vice President, Medical Council), William Kennedy (Legal Advisor, Medical Council), and Patrick Leonard SC spoke to their experiences of the phenomenon. The final panel discussed the impact of medical error from the perspective of the patient and the medical practitioner. Here, Melissa Redmond (Patients for Patient Safety), Dr. Andree Rochfort (Director of Doctor’s Health, ICGP) and Dr. Mary Tumelty (UL) spoke to the physical and psychological impact of medical error.
The conference was organised by Dr. Eimear Spain and Dr. Mary Tumelty, and was graciously supported by the School of Law and Graduate Entry Medical School.
