Congratulations to Professor Ashley Dennison on being elected President of the Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society. The Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society held its annual general meeting (AGM) during which Professor Dennison accepted his presidency.
We pass our thanks to our outgoing President, Mr Daniel O’Keefe.
Upon accepting his Presidency, Professor Dennison published the below letter to all members and friends of the society.
Congratulations to Legal President Elect Dan O’Keeffe on winning Leicestershire Law Society’s Senior Solicitor of the Year Award. Huge congratulations from everyone at The Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society, very well deserved.
On 8th December 2020 Ms Linda Lee, Solicitors’ Tribunal Advocate and Legal Chair Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, spoke on the above topic.
Ms Lee highlighted differences between the two processes. For example although both are concerned with maintaining public trust in the relevant profession (each Tribunal includes a lay member) the question for the Medical Panel is whether the doctor is fit to practice at the date of the Hearing. By contrast, the Solicitors Tribunal makes much use of the ultimate sanction of striking the solicitor off the Roll.
Health issues also attract more sympathy at the Medical Tribunal but in a recent case a Court decided that conduct of a solicitor whilst off duty should not justify a sanction.
Zoom viewers enjoyed a very interesting presentation with time for questions afterwards, and the Society wishes to express its thanks to Ms Lee.
The Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society held its annual general meeting (AGM) on the evening of 11th November 2020 at 6:30 pm.
During the AGM the Treasurer’s report was presented and verbally accepted.
Additionally, Dr Marwan Habiba was elected to President of the Society for the forthcoming 2020/2021 year, which was unopposed.
Mr Daniel O’Keefe was elected to President Elect, unopposed.
Mr David Farrer QC stepped down as President of the Society following a very successful year.
The Society’s committee and all attending members of the Society expressed their thanks to David and their congratulations to Dr Habiba and Mr O’Keefe on their new appointments.
On 11th November Professor Nin Bajaj, Consultant Neurologist, delivered a very insightful and comprehensive presentation to members of the Society on the subject of “Medico-Legal Aspects of Head Injury”.
He spoke on the concept of having a traumatic brain injury without there being a loss of consciousness, and the difficulties experienced by medics in making a diagnosis in such circumstances.
He also covered in depth the issue of Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI) and how diagnosis is most commonly achieved after death, by microscopy at post-mortem. Hence, the importance of employing other modalities, such as enhanced CT imaging, to achieve earlier diagnosis. However, enhanced imaging is not often available and standard CT imaging is often of insufficient resolution to achieve diagnosis, with DAI being diagnosed only 20% of the time on a regular CT scan. Whilst MRI scanning can achieve more enhanced imaging, the timing of the scan is pivotal, and with the average wait time for a scan being 4 – 6 weeks, DAI can often go undiagnosed for some time.
Professor Bajaj’s presentation was attended by a large audience consisting of medics and lawyers. All members of the Society express their thanks to Professor Bajaj for taking the time to speak to us, and for his continued commitment to medicine in the field of Neurology.
The Leicestershire Medico-Legal Society 