Intensive:- Our work as Medical legal advisors starts as soon as we are approached by the professional. This is from our experience, a different approach from the current practice of the others which is to discussed your case just a few days or hours before the disciplinary/regulatory procedure taking place. Our client feedback shows that it gives them enough time to actively participate in their defence. It also gives them the confidence of the support they are getting.

Example :- A doctor contacted us about a General Medical Council Interim Orders Panel hearing which is scheduled in two days time. We started working intensively on looking at the documents, talking with the doctor, identifying the strengths in the doctor’s case and gathering supportive evidence and in close consultation with the defence counsel’s advice. This approach yielded an excellent result with the IOP no Interim (emergency) order against the doctor.

Strategic:- As Medical legal experts, we plan our strategy of action on the client’s interests in the immediate future and in the long term. We draw on our extensive experience in the medical and legal careers to foresee the challenges to the practitioner’s career, work, professional progression and other legal impediments that may arise.

Example:-A doctor who is involved in a Serious Event Review was accused of misdiagnosis and of negligence. After reviewing the documents and by getting independent advice on clinical and legal aspects of the case, and also medical assessment report of the doctor, a strategy of pragmatic defence is devised. As a result, the disciplinary action on the doctor was avoided with greater control on the referral to the regulatory body.

As explained before in the About Us section, the health professionals need a holistic service which anticipates the long term out look of the issues and it’s effects in all aspects of the career and work without fragmentation into different categories which are dealt by different providers.

Comprehensive case management:- When we devise the assistance and defence strategy we use all the available approaches to safeguard the client’s interests. From our experience as Doctor legal advisors, in lot of the professionals’ cases, there are other factors at work, which are not being addressed. These include work pressure, the local work force constitution and behaviour factors, morale of the staff, management issues, changes in the roles, all of which are systemic issues but affect some individuals disproportionately. We also take into consideration personal and family issues which are all too common in practitioners facing professional difficulty. We are also aware that the significant proportion of the staff in the UK health sector is of non-uk origin or training and this overseas qualified/origin staff have a disproportionate representation in the disciplinary and regulatory arena. We take into account the feelings expressed by the individuals from this group to provide relevant support.

Example:- A dentist who got into disciplinary procedures at work expressed her long standing stress as a result of the feeling undermined by her colleagues. She felt it was due to her gender and/or race . We avoided long term damage to her career and life by raising the issue at appropriate level and by working with the employer and the management.