My Background
Malcolm Griffiths is a consultant in obstetrics & gynaecology at Luton & Dunstable Hospital. In 2010 he was jointly awarded (with Sue O'Driscoll) the inaugural Soraya Dhillon Award for Equality & Diversity for the care of pregnant women with HIV. In 2011 he was awarded the David TY Liu prize by the RCOG for his publication (with Samina Tahseen) on vaginal birth after two Caesarean Sections.
He qualified in London in 1981. His training was within the old Thames regions (including posts at Guy's, the Middlesex and Hammersmith Hospitals) and Oxford region (including John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and Royal Berkshire Hospital). He has had training in the range of obstetric and gynaecological special interests, and particular in gynaecological oncology, genitourinary medicine and high-risk obstetrics.
He has obtained the diploma of membership (MRCOG) of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (1987); but delayed taking the fellowship (FRCOG) until 2007. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Health (FFSRH). He obtained the higher degree of MD (University of London) (1993). Through distance learning he has been awarded diplomas and certificates in health economics, medical law and health service management from the universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow and the Open University respectively. Recently (2009) he completed an MA in Law & Ethics in Healthcare after part-time study at the Postgraduate Medical School of Beds & Herts (University of Hertfordshire).
He is a member of the following learned societies - Medico-legal Society, British Maternal & Fetal Medicine Society, British Association of Perinatal Medicine, and East Anglia Obstetric & Gynaecological Society.
He has published eighteen peer- reviewed papers in learned journals, as well as a number of case reports, a book and a chapter in a textbook. He has particular expertise in road traffic accidents affecting pregnancy.
He is the lead clinician for clinical risk management. He is involved in a number of committees in the hospital. Regionally he was an assessor and panel chair for the Confidential Enquiries by CESDI/CEMD/CEMACH/CMACE and is chairman of the Eastern Region O&G Development Group.
In 2009 he was elected to be Regional College Advisor in East of England for the RCOG. He is a member of the RCOG Guidelines Committee.
From December 2009 to November 2011 he has been Guideline Development Group Chair for an update of the NICE (National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence) Caesarean Section Guideline through the National Collaborating Centre for Women's & Children's Health.
He has lectured (in the UK and overseas) on a wide-range of topics but in particular clinical risk management, Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (Pelvic Girdle Pain in Pregnancy), Stillbirth, Vaginal Birth after Caesarean (VBAC) and legal issues.
Current research interests are in Caesarean Section, preterm labour after LLETZ and stillbirth.
His clinical practice is weighted towards high risk obstetrics and supporting women's choices in pregnancy and for delivery. He is actively involved in intrapartum care and training of doctors in O&G. He has a modest gynaecological practice restricted to benign women's problems and considers himself an empathetic clinician.
He has been involved in providing expert advice and reports in clinical negligence and personal injury cases since 1994, since which time he has been instructed in more than 1,500 cases (largely in the United Kingdom but also Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau and Cayman Islands). He has been trained in report writing, giving evidence and acting as a single joint expert. He has given evidence in court - High Court (Queen's Bench Division & Family Division and in Ireland). He has been elected to membership of the Academy of Experts and was a founding member of the Expert Witness Institute. He has been instructed on behalf of claimants and defendants. He has supported AVMA (Association of the Victims of Medical Accidents) by contributing to some of their guidelines and in teaching lawyers on aspects of obstetrics, and is a member of their doctors' support group.
Within his post at Luton & Dunstable Hospital he advises and teaches on medicolegal issues.