Tom Day has successfully overturned an order made by the Interim Orders Tribunal of the MPTS

Tom Day’s client, a consultant surgeon, had been made subject to an interim order of conditions after a number of concerns had been raised primarily regarding post-operative management of infection.  At a full day hearing in the High Court before HHJ Halliwell (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) Tom sought to persuade the Court to revoke the order and allow his client to return to unrestricted practise.  The GMC opposed the application.

The application to revoke the order focussed on a number of issues including inadequate reasoning, the need to regard the allegations in context in order to assess the likelihood of any repetition and proportionality.  The order was revoked by HHJ Halliwell principally on the issue of proportionality.  The Court had regard to the nature of the allegations and the likelihood of recurrence, given that the claimant operated on over one thousand patients a year with no evidence of any significant pattern. When weighing what risk could be identified with the detriment that will be sustained by the doctor it was concluded that the detriment to the defendant was out of proportion to the seriousness of the risk and in particular the likelihood of recurrence.

Tom was instructed by Natasha Ricioppo of CMS.