The inaugural workshop will be conducted by two distinguished experts in the field: the workshop will be led by Mr James Badenoch, Q.C., with Dr Colm McGrath of King’s College London (and formerly of Cambridge) assisting. Mr Badenoch is the Queen’s Counsel who led the successful appeal for the appellant before the UK Supreme Court in the 2015 landmark case of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11 which fundamentally changed the approach to informed consent held for half a century since the decision in Bolam v Friern [1957] 1 WLR 582.

This inaugural workshop aims to help physicians and other healthcare professionals understand the rapidly evolving state of the law governing the duty of care of physicians to their patients – and to understand that the ultimate role of the law is to facilitate and foster trust and understanding in the physician–patient relationship in the joint objective of the betterment of the welfare of the patient. The workshop aims to dispel myths and misunderstandings about the negative impact of current developments in the law; to give physicians a better understanding of how to best utilize the framework of the existing law for the treatment of patients; and to act with confidence in making clinical judgments in the interests of their patients with the full backing of the law.

No prior knowledge of the law is required or assumed of participants – the workshop will provide an introduction to the basic elements of medical negligence, the current state of the law governing physicians’ duties to patients, the standards on which physicians’ duties are to be judged by the courts, and how the decision in Montgomery changes the equation. The implications of the current law (and the likely shape of future developments) for clinical practice will be discussed – as well as why the decision ought not to worry the prudent physician or healthcare professional.

The workshop should benefit practicing physicians, nurses allied healthcare workers and other professionals in the healthcare professions, healthcare and hospital administrators and public health care policymakers seeking an authoritative understanding of the current state of the law in the context of medical negligence and the duties owed by healthcare professionals to physicians in the context of clinical practice.