Writing police statements

●      Doctors’ notes may be utilised as legal evidence or you may be asked to write a police statement relating to your assessment of a patient in ED.

●      Police requests for statements usually come through the legal team at St V’s and emailed to clinicians with the request attached and a template for the statement. Our legal team should be informed of all police requests in the unlikely event a request is received without their involvement.

●      Avoid medical jargon and include lay definitions of specific and unavoidable medical terminology

●      Write in prose to logically and objectively explain the steps and facts relating to your ED assessment, findings and subsequent management

●      Ensure that events should be documented as a story relayed to you as the ED clinician; for example “Mr Jones stated that he was hit with an iron bar” as opposed to “Mr Jones was hit with an iron bar”.

●      Further information and guidance is in this article from Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. If you are unsure about how to go about writing a police statement, please speak to an ED consultant prior to submitting anything.