Medical Defence Union questions value of prosecuting doctors for manslaughter

A doctor faces a manslaughter charge after a man he decided was fit to be detained died in police custody.

The Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales said that Hisham El-Baroudy, a former forensic medical examiner, would be charged with manslaughter by gross negligence over the death of Andrzej Rymarzak from opiate and alcohol intoxication just hours after he was examined in January 2009 at Chelsea police station in London.

The Medical Defence Union, the United Kingdom’s largest defence organisation for doctors, said that manslaughter charges against doctors are rare but that they often trigger a range of other investigations that can have a devastating effect on …