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Hemachandran v Thirumalesh [2024] EWCA Civ 896

Belief and capacity

(1) The judge had made an error of law in regarding the absence of belief as determinative of the functional test. The Court of Appeal noted: "The proper application of the statutory test does no more than reflect that, where there is an objectively verifiable medical consensus as to the consequences of having or not having medical treatment, if the patient does not believe or accept that information to be true, it may be that they are unable to understand and or use and weigh the information in question." (2) The judge also failed to give sufficient reasons for disagreeing with the unanimous view of the experts that the patient had capacity to make decisions as to her medical treatment.