Medical

The medical profession is perhaps the most highly regulated of all, with other healthcare professions also coming under increasing formal scrutiny.

Littleton barristers have experience appearing in hearings at the General Medical Council (including specialist registrar appeals formerly dealt with by PMETB), the Healthcare Professions Council, the Royal College of Nursing and in internal hearings.

Our Barristers regularly act on behalf of Trusts, surgeries, doctors, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals.

Littleton Barristers have developed significant experience in internal disciplinary hearings, whether as counsel to the professional, acting in an advisory capacity to the panel, or acting as member/chair of the panel.

Key cases include:

• R (on the application of Puri) v Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2011] EWHC 970 (Admin); [2011] IRLR 582 Meaning of “independent and impartial” under Article 6 ECHR for internal disciplinary panel.
• Kulkarni v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation [2010] ICR 101 (CA) in which the Court of Appeal held that a doctor was entitled to legal representation at an internal Trust disciplinary hearing.
• Lauffer v Barking Havering & Redbridge NHS Trust [2010] Med. L.R. 68 in which the High Court restrained a hospital from dismissing a consultant surgeon
• R (Hollinworth) v Sp.cialist Training Authority of the Medical Royal Colleges [2001] EWHC Admin 557: judicial review in respect of entry onto the specialist training register. European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995.
• R (Burke) v General Medical Council & others [2006] QB 273 (2005) HRLR 35 (2006) UKHRR 509 judicial review of the GMC guidance on withholding and withdrawing artificial hydration and nutrition.
• R (Hamilton) v UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting and the Nursing and Midwifery Council [2003] EWCA Civ 1600, [2004] 79 BMLR 30 challenge to powers of suspension of nursing regulatory body under Art 1 Protocol 1 ECHR.