Appropriate Examination Locations

Published 11 July 2022

MedCo has today updated its guidance relating to appropriate examination locations.

"MedCo guidance on appropriate examination locations for consultations is; 

A physical (not virtual) face-to-face appointment must take place with the injured party;

MedCo considers that at all times the best interests of the claimant must be considered, and locations must be confidential, private, safe, secure and be regarded as a professional environment.

Currently, MedCo considers the following venue types as examples but not an exhaustive list:

• Best practice: Medical facilities e.g. clinics, GP practices and other medically equipped centres.
• Acceptable: Hotel conference / meeting rooms, offices, experts’ private consulting rooms at/adjacent to their residence (equipped to an equivalent standard to medical facilities that are confidential, private, safe and secure) and home visits (e.g. elderly patients, or others where their incapacity means they are unable to travel to you).
• Inappropriate: Hotel bedrooms, other offices / commercial premises, private residences and via webcams or other means whereby the medical expert is remote from the patient.

If in any doubt, medical experts should refer to their own regulator and published medical good practice to seek guidance.

These guidelines should be applied in conjunction with the Remote Examination Conditions Version 7.0 document."

 

To ensure consistency, the new appropriate examination guidance has been included in both the following updated documents;

• Examination Guidelines v2.0  (see page 3) and
• Guidance on MoJ Qualifying Criteria v6.0 (section 1.13 h) ii)