The Medical Protection New Zealand podcast

Dr Garry Clearwater is the Chief Medical Advisor to the Coroner.  He is also an ED Consultant, Cremation Referee and previous GP.  

Garry demystifies how to fill in death certificates, including what to do when we aren’t certain of the cause of death.  

We also discuss the recent change in the Burial and Cremation Act where we may not need to view the body after death.

Unexpected death in the community: What’s so urgent about a death cert at 2am? 


Many of us have experienced being woken up in the middle of the night by the police wanting us to sign a death certificate for one of our patients.  

Why do the Police do this?
What is their role when there is an unexpected death in the community?  
How can we work together, and not in conflict?  

Detective Inspector Felicity Cato is the Coronial Investigations Manager in the National Criminal Investigations Group. She comes to explain the role of the police in this situation and how we can more easily work together.

In this HDC case,  a patient is admitted to ED with abdominal pain.  

Communication issues between ED, General Surgery and General Medicine leads to patient deterioration.  

We explore the importance of good communication between clinicians, good documentation and closing the loop

Our work life spans many decades.  How do we sustain a long career?  

In this podcast we discuss this question with our guest speaker Dr Heidi Baker, who is a Paediatrician, Emergency Specialist, professional supervisor & coach.

You are on call and a patient comes in afterhours for anti-thrombolysis following a stroke. There is confusion about the availability of alteplase in the hospital and you’ve never prescribed this before, in fact is there even a protocol? Where do you start?

We discuss learnings from this HDC case where the HO made critical errors which led to the death of the patient.

In this episode we explore what burnout looks like in the senior clinician and how it affects communication. 

Dr Ashwina Rao, an anaesthetist and trainer in communication for doctors returns to discuss strategies to maintain good communication to minimise patient and clinician risk.

Burnout and imposter syndrome is very common among junior doctors, but this doesn’t have to be you.  This podcast looks at the symptoms and strategies to build your resilience in the workplace so that you can thrive.

In part 2 of personal professional supervision Dr Bronwyn Campbell (GP and professional supervisor) returns to discuss medicolegal consequences of conflict at work with practical tips on what works to help resolve issues.

In the middle of the night as a junior RMO you are asked to provide care outside your expertise.  How do you safely manage these situations? 

This podcast follows a registrar as they navigate a difficult night on call.

Raising concerns in the right way with senior colleagues can be very difficult to do well.  

What if you’ve been asked to consent a patient for an operation for the first time and you have no idea what to say; or you need to break bad news to a patient.  

Maybe there has been a poor patient outcome and a registrar has just thrown you under the bus without cause and you need to speak up for yourself.  

This podcast explores how to respectfully communicate your concerns to senior colleagues without conflict.