Managing challenging conversations with patients

Sarah is the founder of The Medical Mediation Foundation which provides mediation and training in managing conflict in the healthcare sector to a wide range of NHS hospitals and internationally. She is an accredited mediator and also Co-Director of The Evelina Resolution Project, which provides mediation and conflict management training to clinical and non-clinical staff at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. In 2014 Sarah was voted an “NHS Innovator” by The Health Service Journal for her work on the Evelina project. She has a Masters degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College London and is a former award winning BBC social affairs presenter. In 2018, The Medical Mediation Foundation won Mediation Programme of the Year in the National Mediation Awards for its work on the Evelina Resolution Project.

Oscar is a qualified barrister, mediator and door tenant of Lamb Chambers in Middle Temple. He has a background in regulatory and public law, with a particular interest in medical law and ethics. Prior to his work with The Medical Mediation Foundation, Oscar was a senior legal adviser to the GMC, overseeing judicial reviews and statutory appellate work in the High Court, and had conduct of the Supreme Court case of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11, one of the most significant medical law cases in the last 25 years. His work for The Medical Mediation Foundation includes teaching, mediating and team facilitation for healthcare teams experiencing conflict.

Gaynor graduated from Cambridge University in 1989 and worked as an obstetric and neonatal SHO, before commencing training in anaesthetics. In 1997, she qualified also as a solicitor and with the dual qualification worked in legal practice defending pharmaceutical product liability actions, and assisting doctors and other healthcare professionals with regulatory and clinical negligence cases. In 2011, Gaynor joined the MDU and has continued to assist doctors as a medicolegal adviser since then.