A 21 year old Sri Lankan woman had given birth to her first baby on 16 July. At that time, she spoke very few words of English; the antenatal records revealed at 16 weeks that she spoke Tamil, and an interpreter was required.

In a recent case from an employment tribunal, a band 5 nurse appealed against her dismissal for initiating discussions about religion with patients.

Twenty years ago, English courts were twice faced with the dilemma of needle phobia; both cases relating to women who had consented to urgent caesarean section and explicitly wanted their babies to be born safely.

Disclosures by CLAWS

All clinicians are well aware that patients must not be tricked or cheated into receiving treatment that they would otherwise refuse to undergo

Mr Gallardo complained that he had not been told of his malignant diagnosis, and that a plan for following his postoperative course had not been put in place.

In August 2018 a judge decided that a colostomy should be performed on an incapacitated man, and in doing so overruled the patient’s wishes to avoid the procedure. How can this be justified?

Whether admission to our hospital is recorded on paper or electronically, we faithfully record the patient’s ‘next of kin’. Is this useful information?

Nasogastric tubes: a narrow dispute.

In a judgement reported recently, the Court of Protection made an order concerning a man in the late stages of a degenerative neurological disease.