> they then go into the well-practised confirmatory blood test. This has to be
> taken separately as it has to be done in the prescribed
> manner by a person with the evidential training - the Police surgeon. The
> lawyers will get any sample taken by anyone else ruled as
> inadmissible as it could have been tampered with.
I'm not a police surgeon [but end up doing police surgeon work because, like
everything else where I work, the police surgeon is a hundred miles away],
so the real police surgeons can point out if I'm wrong.
As I understand it (and practice it) the sample is taken in front of a
police officer (usually two officers) and injected into two identical
forensic bottles which are labelled, signed and countersigned. These are
then inserted into two envelopes which are sealed and the doctor and police
officer sign across the sealed tamper-proof edges. The punter then has a
choice of which envelope to keep and can, if they wish, send their sample to
an independent (but accredited) laboratory for analysis at their own cost.
If either envelope is tampered with in any way before it is analysed then
the sample is inadmissible.
This is to prevent us being stitched up by an unscrupulous cop who takes a
dislike to us (impossible!) and of course also protects the police from
being accused of this or that claim being used in court as a defence.
It also means that any sample taken by us in A+E / at the scene is
inadmissible as it may have been tampered with (or perhaps the courts don't
like out error rate - they have probably seen the stats for how often we get
our patients sample tubes mixed up!)
Robbie Coull
email: [log in to unmask] website: http://www.coull.net
DISCLAIMER AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
This document should only be read by those persons to whom it is addressed
and it is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent
written confirmation of its contents. Accordingly the author disclaims all
responsibility and accepts no liability (including in negligence) for the
consequences of any person acting or refraining from acting on such
information prior to the receipt by those persons of subsequent written
confirmation. This document may contain confidential information belonging
to the sender which is protected by the physician-patient privilege.
If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the author. Please
also destroy and delete the message from your computer. Any form of
unauthorised reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification,
distribution and/or publication of this e-mail message is strictly
prohibited.
|