St George’s and the powers of the court

Newton J has very recently authorised the publication of the order he made in St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust v P & Q [2015] EWCOP 42 (discussed here).  The order makes clear what we had suspected must have been the case (but was made inadvertently ambiguous in the judgment), namely that he did not order the Trust to continue providing P with renal replacement therapy; rather he declared that it was lawful (being in his best interests) for him to continue receiving it.   Had he ordered the Trust to continue providing such treatment, that would have represented a very significant step over the well-respected dividing line between the roles of the court and clinicians.

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