ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the establishment and operation of two notable inquiries into events at the children's pediatric heart unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary, and into the unauthorised retention of organs and tissue at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool. It suggests that these inquiries in their disparate ways have provided a much more effective mechanism of 'complaining about medicine', at least in terms of raising complaints and concerns. The chapter explores the shifting approach of the courts to medical negligence cases during the 1990s in the area of information disclosure, the so-called 'informed consent' cases. It shows how the apparent increase in clinical scrutiny of the professional practice standard was, in fact, something much more nuanced and complex. The chapter examines the increasing use of the inquiry as a means of public scrutiny of clinical practice. It considers how the lessons of history may inform future developments in relation to the legal regulation of clinical practice.
