Description
Dr Will Howe – General Practitioner & GP Expert Witness
BM, MRCGP, Dip Urol, MD, FRCGP
Experienced General Practitioner Providing Independent Medico-Legal Opinion in Primary Care
Dr Will Howe is an experienced General Practitioner and GP Expert Witness providing independent medico-legal opinion in cases involving the standard, organisation and delivery of primary medical care.
His clinical background is unusually extensive. Dr Howe worked as a full-time GP partner at Lostwithiel Medical Practice in Cornwall for 28 years, from 1995 until 2023, before moving into locum general practice alongside his established medico-legal work. His former practice served approximately 5,000 patients in a rural setting and achieved an Outstanding CQC rating in 2018.
This depth of frontline general practice experience is particularly valuable in clinical negligence litigation. A GP expert must often consider a consultation in the context in which it actually occurred: the symptoms presented at the time, available clinical information, appropriate differential diagnoses, safety-netting, investigation, prescribing and whether referral to secondary care was reasonably required.
Dr Howe accepts instructions where an independent GP expert witness opinion is required, including instructions from claimants and defendants, as well as Single Joint Expert work. His medico-legal career began following specialist expert witness training with Inspire Medilaw in 2018 and subsequently developed through instructions from medical defence organisations, solicitors and organisations acting in NHS litigation. His 2025 CV records in excess of 200 medico-legal reports over the preceding four years.
His experience extends beyond written reporting. Dr Howe has provided expert evidence in the High Court of Justice King’s Bench Division and has also given evidence in a Coroner’s Court. He additionally undertakes expert work for the General Medical Council.
A significant strength of Dr Howe’s practice is the breadth of issues he can assess from a primary-care perspective. Previous instructions have concerned delayed diagnosis, failure to refer, delayed cancer diagnosis, cauda equina syndrome, diabetic foot disease, consent, prescribing and general practice urology. He also has particular expertise concerning the long-term prescribing of nitrofurantoin in general practice, an area in which he has undertaken professional and academic work.
Dr Howe’s broader qualifications include an MD from the University of Southampton, Membership and Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and a Diploma in Urology. His career has also encompassed research, undergraduate teaching, GP training and primary-care service development. His CV records roles including General Practice Research Fellow, Community Sub-Dean and recognised GP trainer, as well as research and publications addressing prescribing, urology, cancer diagnosis, sepsis and primary-care organisation.
His background also gives him insight into the organisational side of general practice. He can consider issues involving practice systems, administration, communication, prescribing processes and referral pathways, and how these may have affected an individual patient’s care. That can be particularly important where allegations involve not simply one consultation, but the way a practice operated over a period of time.
For solicitors requiring an experienced GP opinion, Dr Howe offers a combination of decades of clinical general-practice experience, formal medico-legal training, substantial report-writing experience and courtroom evidence. He can provide detailed, contextual analysis while remaining focused on the specific issues contained within the legal instruction.
Areas of Expertise
- GP / General Practice expert witness
- Clinical negligence involving general practice
- Medical negligence
- Delayed diagnosis
- Failure to diagnose
- Failure or delay in referral
- Delayed diagnosis of cancer
- Primary-care cancer recognition and referral
- Cauda equina syndrome in general practice
- Diabetic foot assessment and management
- GP prescribing
- Long-term nitrofurantoin prescribing
- Medication monitoring
- General practice urology
- Urinary symptoms and lower urinary tract problems
- Consent issues
- Safety-netting
- Primary-care clinical records
- General practice administration and systems
- Referral pathways
- Coroner’s reports
- GMC / fitness-to-practise matters
- Claimant instructions
- Defendant instructions
- Single Joint Expert work
- Personal injury matters
- Primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic
