The Role of Forensic Physician in UK

Expert Profile

Jason Paynes James is a specialist in forensic and legal medicine. He has been a forensic physician for 30 years. He is director of Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd and he was president of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians from 2015-2017 and of the world police medical officers from 2011-2014. He is an Honorary Professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He is an Honorary Clinical Professor at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is the Lead Medical Examiner at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Trust. He is an expert adviser to the UK National Crime Agency, He is an Independent Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal weapons.

Foreground

The session was started with a short introduction of the speaker Jason Paynes James the session was all about how the physician is serving their duties for forensic and medico-legal investigation in the UK and also the session has entailed various aspects such as how the examination should be done what are the points in which we have to be more attentive while the investigation, what are the ethics which should be followed and what’s are the things we have to avoid for denial of a miscarriage of justice in the investigation 

Who is a forensic physician?

Historically a forensic physician was known as a police surgeon or Police doctor or Divisional surgeon/ Local family physician now we call them with terminologies such as forensic Medical examiner, Forensic Medical office or we can also call them as Sexual Offence Examiner as per the lore and responsibilities they are playing during their duties. Now if we talk about the qualities of a forensic physician, he must be independent and non-judgemental, he should be practicing clinical forensic medicine, he must be involved with the Police, Law Tribunals, and the judiciary, and also with the living persons, he should have a specialty or a special interest toward the field of forensic and legal medicine.

 If we talk about the faculty of forensic and legal medicine of the royal college of physician there are 3 main groups which are 

1. Forensic Practitioner: The forensic physician includes forensic physician which is again subdivided into two subgroups known as General forensic Medicine and sexual offense medicine, another group of forensic practitioners includes forensic psychiatrist, Forensic Odontologist and Forensic Pathologist

2. Medico-legal Adviser to Medical Defense Organization: The medico-legal advisers includes Medico-legal doctors who are responsible for doing all the task related to medico-legal autopsies for forensic purposes

3. Medical Coroners: Medico-legal Coroners are Medico-legal reviewers who are responsible for the medico-legal examination and are the Medical members of the tribunal.

Some major and discrete objectives need to be fulfilled by the faculty of forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians. Those objectives are

• To promote for the public benefit for the advancement of the education and knowledge in the field of forensic legal medicine
• Another objective is to develop and maintain the public benefit for the good practice of forensic and legal medicine by ensuring the highest professional standard of competence and ethical integrity 

So basically the focus of the faculty member is toward rising the standard in forensic and legal medicine for protecting Vulnerable people. 

Responsibilities of forensic Physician

The role and responsibilities of the forensic physician include the assessment of detainees in the police custody, assessment of sexual assault, assessment of torture refugee and asylum speakers, and ensuring the safeguarding measure for them. They also perform the responsibility of medical care of the detainee in the police custody, medical and forensic assessment of police officers, written and live evidence to the court/tribunal, expert witness, and coroners inquiries. The forensic physician also review the cold case, historic cases and collaboration with other forensic disciplines

In the session, the speaker has discussed about several books which are so interesting and worth taking notes on while dealing with medico-legal cases. Then in the session, the speaker has detailed about a vast spectrum of health Problems of Detainees in Forensic Healthcare Issues and non-forensic issues. In forensic health care issues the significance was found for the dependence on Cigarettes i.e. 63% while in the Non-forensic Healthcare Issues the prescribed medication issues were found most significant i.e. 74%

Further in the session, the Speaker has told about the documentation of medical evidence which includes Written Documentation, Body Diagram, and Photography DVD Recoding, Body Warn Video and disclosure, and review. Then Sir has discussed numerous cases and techniques which are being used in UK and how the medico-legal investigation and examination is being performed there. Along with that he has also discussed about some recent and most significant research and reviews that are in process for the related cases. He has discussed about the case of Baber Ahmad, the civil Servant’s son responsible for plotting the murders of Americans. Then he has discussed the case of Mau Mau in which Kenyans still waiting for Justice to Join Class Action over Britain’s role in the emergency. He has also discussed the case of Jimmy Mubenga Death and many more. 

Conclusion

So basically in this session, the has entailed many ups and downs of medico-legal examination in UK and what is the cause which can be responsible fo miscarriage of justice in which we have to give the extra attention and care such as police process, assessment, documentation sampling, prosecution process, oversight process and all. So these working in those who work in forensic disciplines in settings such as police and jail detention, sexual assault referral, and criminal justice have unique and privileged access to settings in most sectors where various sorts of justice miscarriages may occur. As a result, those of us who work in such environments must be watchful and ready to express concerns whenever there appears to be a possibility of a legal miscarriage. 

For a detailed insight into the session, you can watch out the session recording in our YouTube channel forensic365