An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday 2nd December. The President was in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
The President then introduced the speaker Dr Jason Payne-James who spoke to the title ‘The role of the Forensic Physician’.
Dr Payne-James explained that clinical forensic medicine is not pathology and attending murder sites. It is an important and emerging branch of medicine that involves such things as examining prisoners – especially detainees in police cells, examination of alleged perpetrators of crime, adult sexual assault, mental health assessments, some refugee and asylum considerations, torture and human rights issues and paediatric assessment for neglect, physical or sexual abuse. The physician is not an agent of the state but an independent opinion. Until 2000, members joined the Association of Police Surgeons but now have their own Association of Forensic Medicine Physicians. There is also a faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine in the RCP. The objects are ‘To promote for the public benefit the advancement of education and knowledge in the field of forensic and legal medicine to the highest professional standards and ethical integrity’. He said there were 50 forensic pathologists for 1000 murders a year and 500 – 1000 forensic physicians for 950,000 cases of violence. Some are full time but most are part time and often GPs. There are no official posts.
The speaker related his personal journey to this speciality and described the evolution of it. He found no research had been done and he considered the speciality needed its own postgraduate qualification.
He described some current daily themes which relate to forensic medicine such as the Baby P tragedy, torture, rape of intoxicated females and examination of supposed terrorists. Another area of current concern was deaths in police custody. Risk assessments were not always properly conducted. His own research found that the majority involved mental health cases, people of no fixed abode [and therefore had no GP, and no current medication for epilepsy diabetes cardiacand respiratory illness] and alcohol misuse.
Finally he said that the rewards of his speciality were: the job satisfaction, the broad base of real clinical medicine needed, the huge range of the clinical caseload, the personalindependence, the ensuring of safe healthcare to vulnerable detainees, and assisting the proper administration of the law.
The president thanked Dr Payne-James for his most interesting talk.
There being no other business the meeting was closed at 10 pm.