Who runs the Medical Justice Board (MJB)?

The MJB is set up and run by a Central Executive comprised mainly of trained medical and legal personnel, who are concerned about the effects of medical mishaps.

How is the MJB funded?

The MJB is funded privately.

Does the MJB cost anything to join?

No.

What will the MJB do for me?

The MJB will listen to your case. After that we will ask questions to clarify key issues. Then we will work with you to help you to find the answers you need.

And you'd do that for free?

Yes. Your only obligation is to help two others in similar need for free? But we won't check on that - because we believe that those who have been helped will want to help more than two others.

What kind of help are we talking about?

Patients and their relatives may not know well enough how health care systems work. Hospitals for example are very complex organisations with lots of rules and regulations, and tiers of management personnel doing different things. How do you access medical notes for example. Who do you ask? What would you look for in the notes? What does in all mean? How do I write a complaint? What standard of care should a patient get? So those are some of the things we'd try to help with.

In your objectives you use the words 'medical mishap' - what does that mean?

A medical mishap is a very broad term we use to cover any kind of deeply unsatisfactory outcome from or at a  medical intervention. Notice we use the words 'at' and  'intervention'. This is because not all medical activities are bound to be treatment. Treatment may seem a rather simple word but it is defined differently in differnet medical circles. So to sum it up 'medical mishap' is our way of covering a whole lot that went wrong. So for example even if you were treated in a disrespectful way, we would guide you on how to approach that.

What kind of information do I have to provide

1. You will need to tell us what went wrong

2. In doing so you take all responsibility for delivering that information without any breach of law relevant to your situation. It is adviseable therefore that you seek qualified legal advice before consulting us.

3. Information should be structured in chronological order - dates and times as best as possible. The earliest events should come first.

4. The roles of any medical or clinical personnel must be known by you. This is important because nurses duties may differ from doctors duties.

5. Then tell us what you want as an outcome.

Can I post my case on your website?

Yes and no. Yes if it causes no harm to any person or another's reputation. References to any person should be so anonymised for Web Publication, that it is virtually impossible for a total stranger to figure out the identity of person(s) mentioned. We will always screen and modify such submissions. But all such submissions should be anonymised beforehand. We are will not undertake to remove names from submissions, as that will be a significant burden on our charitable time. For submissions that are not anonymised, or those not intended for the website, we would still recommend a high degree of 'anonymisation'.

Can I give you all a call?

Sure. Call  +44 (0) 7017 60 60 50 (between 09:30 and 18:00 GMT). This number may cost between 15 and 35 p/min to call depending on the provider you are calling from. We've set it up this way to discourage crank callers and we're just being honest about that. After an initial brief conversation we can give you an 0844 number which should cost less than 5p/min.

Can I email?

Do you give expert medical advice?

Not at this stage of our operations. Our main role is to point sufferers to standards they could reasonably expect in health services and in the management of their care.

How can you separate 'guiding' from medical advice?

Medical advice is about telling you how to manage or cope with a condition or obtaining treatment for some condition.

We are not here to give that kind of guidance. We are here as friends to give you a few important tips. We are clear that we are not taking on a health management or advisory role.

So, it's similar to calling your mate down the road to ask him what he thinks. The difference here is that you get to access the brains of people who have more knowledge and expertise - people who know how medical systems work. Not everybody has a friend who is a doctor or lawyer.

But medicine is so varied, can there be standards that apply to psychiatry be the same for surgery?

Sure thing. Take for example, how doctors come to diagnoses. The basics of this is about a reasonable assessment and examination. So it matters not whether it is a psychiatric patient or a surgical patient - both should have the same standard. So we can guide patients and relatives on what they should ask about to find out whether a reasonable examination was done. We'll also point you to sources of standards that can empower you.

I'm a lawyer hoping to use the site for a case I'm working on. Can I get some help here?

The MJB is about helping those who have suffered 'the effects of medical mishaps'. So we're happy to help any professional person who assures us that he is representing a sufferer.

Can you give us an example of how an acceptable post might look?

Sure. See: Misdiagnosed.

How do you keep out crooks and charlatans?

Good question. Firstly you will notice that anyone seeking our assistance has to register with full details that are kept confidential. This is a significant deterrent because crooks are less likely to take the chance. Yes they could submit a false name and email address. Nothing is fool-proof. However, all email addresses are validated. So a would-be crook is traceable electronically back to someone who knows them. Thirdly, we record IP addresses automatically. This combination of evidence we think will deter most crooks. Genuine people have no reason to fear submitting their details and asking honest questions. So we expect far more honest people will respect our efforts. Fourthly, we will have anyone engaging in fraudulent or illegal activity, hunted down by a team of IT experts based on resources originating in the United Kingdom. So, whilst nothing is perfect we believe that there are reasonable deterrents to crooks and charlatans.