We have lectured widely to members of the healthcare sector on the Human Rights Act around the time it reached the statute book in October 2000. Since then the Group has frequently been instructed to advise on the implications of the Act, and to defend cases where Human Rights issues have arisen, often in cases where the implications have been extensive. Cases have included:
- Reviewing the policies of hospitals, for example on confidentiality and resuscitation matters, to ensure Human Rights Act compliance
- Representing a Mental Health Trust in an unsuccessful challenge by patients to prevent closure of a hospital where they were being treated on grounds, inter alia, that they had been promised a "home for life" and as such were protected under Article 8
- Representing a private hospital carrying out statutory duties under the Mental Health Act 1983 where the hospital was held to be a "public body" under the Act
- Representing the NHS at inquests where Article 2 issues have arisen, and the extent to which the inquest can be said to be a full and proper inquiry into a death
- Advising on many mental health matters in which the Act has implications, including representing a Mental Health Trust in a case that went to the House of Lords concerning readmission of the patient under the Mental Health Act where it could not be established that there had been a relevant change of circumstances; issues having been raised under Article 5.
- Advising and representing a private mental health provider on confidentiality issues in response to the patient's claim and judicial review challenge that the RMO's proposed contact with members of the patient's family would amount to breach of a patient's rights.