Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Legal issue'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 572 results
  1. Content Article
    Approximately 8% of US doctors experience a malpractice claim annually. Most malpractice claims are a result of adverse events, which may or may not be a result of medical errors. However, not all medicolegal cases are the result of medical errors or negligence, but rather, may be associated with the individual nature of the patient-doctor relationship. The strength of this relationship may be partially determined by a physician’s emotional intelligence (EI), or his or her ability to monitor and regulate his or her emotions as well as the emotions of others. This review evaluates the role of EI in developing the patient-physician relationship and how EI may influence patient decisions to pursue medicolegal action.
  2. Content Article
    Court of Protection Handbook: a user’s guide addresses in detail the practice and processes of the Court of Protection n terms that are aimed not only at lawyers but also to the increasing numbers of people who either by choice or otherwise are involved in proceedings before the Court of Protection without legal help.
  3. News Article
    The death rates for black women in childbirth were revealed in a recent report from MPs and were described as “appalling”, yet action, not words, are needed for what could be considered breaches of the Human Rights Act. Ministers are not giving priority to reducing the gap in health inequalities, write Nicola Wainwright and Suleikha Ali in a commentary to the Times. "If the response to the review is foot-dragging from the government and senior health service officials, then legal action may be the only way to draw focus to this issue and to try to reduce the number of ethnic minority women and babies dying unnecessarily." The report, published by the women and equalities committee last month, highlights the “glaring and persistent” disparities faced by ethnic minority women compared to their white counterparts with regards to pregnancy and birth. However, these same disparities have been known and reported on for 20 years, while progress on improving the situation has been shockingly slow. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 11 May 2023
  4. News Article
    US federal health officials say two hospitals broke the law by denying an abortion to a woman experiencing a life-threatening emergency. The hospitals, in Kansas and Missouri, are now being probed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The investigation is the first of its kind to be launched since the Supreme Court invalidated the national right to an abortion last year. After the Supreme Court ruling, the White House warned hospitals that doctors must provide abortions if the health of the patient is at risk - even in states that have banned abortion. "Fortunately, this patient survived. But she never should have gone through the terrifying ordeal she experienced in the first place," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement seen by BBC News. "We want her, and every patient out there like her, to know that we will do everything we can to protect their lives and health, and to investigate and enforce the law to the fullest extent of our legal authority, in accordance with orders from the courts." Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 May 2023
  5. News Article
    The mother of a nine-year-old girl who died from hyponatraemia has said a new inquest that started today is "an opportunity for truth". Raychel Ferguson, from Londonderry, died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in June 2001. Her parents, Ray and Marie Ferguson, have long campaigned to find out the truth about their daughter's death. Hyponatraemia is an abnormally low level of sodium in blood and can occur when fluids are incorrectly administered. Mrs Ferguson said the fact there was a second inquest "speaks to the culture of cover up that has plagued her death, involving the medical and legal professions". An inquiry in 2018 into the deaths of five children in Northern Ireland hospitals, including Raychel, found her death was avoidable. The 14-year-long inquiry into hyponatraemia-related deaths was heavily critical of the "self-regulating and unmonitored" health service. In January 2022, a new inquest opened but was postponed in October after new evidence came to light. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 May 2023
  6. Content Article
    This briefing by the NHS Confederation provides overview and analysis of the health and care bill.
  7. News Article
    A 48-hour strike by nurses in England over the Bank Holiday weekend will be cut short by a day after a High Court judge ruled it was partly unlawful. The walkout in a row over pay by the Royal College of Nursing, due to start on Sunday, will now end on Monday. RCN chief Pat Cullen said this was "the darkest day" of the dispute so far and the government needed to negotiate. Downing Street said it was "regrettable" the government had to go to court and it had tried to avoid it. Health Secretary Steve Barclay took legal action after NHS Employers said the last day of the planned strike was not covered by the mandate as the ballots closed on 2 November at midday. The judge Mr Justice Linden ordered the RCN to pay the costs of the hearing, saying the union had showed "a high degree of unreasonableness", the outcome was "inevitable" and "instead of grasping the nettle and conceding" it had forced the case to court. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2023
  8. News Article
    Health Secretary Steve Barclay is to ask judges to rule whether part of the next nurse strike is unlawful. The government wants the High Court to assess whether Tuesday - the last day of the walkout in England - falls outside the Royal College of Nursing's six-month mandate for action. It believes the mandate will have lapsed by Tuesday - the 48-hour strike is due to start at 20:00 BST on Sunday. The RCN accused ministers of using "draconian anti-union legislation". Mr Barclay's decision to take legal action follows a request from hospital bosses. The RCN argues the strike falls within the required six-month period from when votes were cast in its ballot for industrial action. But NHS Employers said it had legal advice that the action would be unlawful. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 April 2023
  9. News Article
    The NHS has launched a legal challenge that could end in the high court to block the second day of an upcoming strike by tens of thousands of nurses. Officials at NHS Employers wrote to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on Wednesday saying the union’s plans for a two-day strike were unlawful. In response, it is understood the RCN has said it will “forcibly resist” employers’ attempts to seek a high court injunction designed to block the strike, which they insist is lawful. The threat raises the possibility of a high court clash between NHS lawyers backed by the government and those of the nursing union. It also highlights the increasingly bitter relationship between the government and those representing workers on the frontline of the health service. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2023
  10. News Article
    The US Supreme Court has extended until Friday a temporary block on limits to access of a popular abortion pill. A Texas judge suspended approval of abortion drug mifepristone on 7 April, questioning its safety. Parts of that decision were upheld on appeal, prompting the Biden administration to make an emergency request to the Supreme Court. It's the most significant such case since the Supreme Court last year ended the nationwide right to abortion. The pill - used in more than half of abortions in the US - was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more than two decades ago. Critics say that by overriding the FDA's approval, the court in Texas has usurped the federal health agency's remit to regulate food, medicine, and medical devices. Legal experts warn the ruling opens the door for challenges to other approved medicines in the US and could also stifle development of future drugs. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2023
  11. News Article
    A tribunal which allowed a doctor's voluntary removal from the medical register was an "unlawful corner-cutting exercise", a judge has said. Neurologist Michael Watt was at the centre of Northern Ireland's biggest recall of patients. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) allowed him to voluntarily remove himself in 2021. It meant he would not face a public hearing about any fitness to practice issues. More 2,500 patients who were in his care had their cases reviewed - with around one in five having their diagnosis changed. Having already quashed the decision to grant removal, Mr Justice McAlinden delivered a scathing assessment of how the application was handled on Monday. In Belfast's High Court, he described the process where Dr Watt's request was heard without the necessary jurisdiction as a "fiasco". The court also heard how Dr Watt appeared to have a "get out of jail free card" where patients were denied public scrutiny of their medical care. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 April 2023
  12. News Article
    Nine in 10 beauty clinics are breaking the law by advertising Botox, new research reveals, sparking fresh concern that Britain’s booming £3.6bn cosmetic treatments industry is like the “wild west”. Academics at University College London (UCL) found 88% clinics in London are flouting regulations intended to protect public health banning the advertising of Botox and other forms of botulinum toxin. The disclosure prompted warnings the illegal advertisements could help persuade vulnerable people to undergo injections that could leave them feeling traumatised. Promotion of the anti-ageing substance is illegal because it is a prescription-only medicine, which cannot be advertised under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. A group of beauty professionals who are seeking to rid the industry of its reputation for dubious practices said the findings showed consumers were being subjected to “a tsunami of untamed and unrestricted promotional activity that presents a threat to public protection and patient safety”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 April 2023
  13. News Article
    The deaths of 650 patients treated by a breast cancer surgeon who was convicted of maiming hundreds are being investigated, it has been reported. Once one of the country’s leading doctors, Ian Paterson carried out thousands of operations before he was jailed for uneccesarily performing hundreds of life-changing surgeries. The Sunday Times has now revealed medical experts are sifting through the records of women who were cared for by the disgraced surgeon over more than twenty years. He is currently serving a 20-year jail term, having been found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent. Many of the procedures, which took place between 1997 and 2011, had “no medically justifiable reason”, a court heard. According to The Sunday Times, 27 inquests have been opened in cases where coroners “believe there is evidence to have reason to suspect that some of those deaths may be unnatural”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 April 2023
  14. Event
    Rhys Hadden, a barrister from Serjeants’ Inn Chambers, will consider: Key case law and important updates from the past 12 months; Any updates on the revisions to the Code of Practice to the Mental Capacity Act 2005; and What is the latest with the Liberty Protection Safeguards? Register
  15. Content Article
    Nine care home workers are facing trial for neglecting, verbally abusing and deliberately antagonising extremely vulnerable patients at Whorlton Hall. The six men and three women, aged 25-54, are being prosecuted after a reporter went undercover and filmed the behaviour for a BBC Panorama documentary. George Julian repots on the case at Teesside crown court in Middlesbrough.
  16. Content Article
    In this article, critical criminologist Sharon Hartles looks at the ongoing fight for justice by families affected by the hormone pregnancy test (HPT) Primodos. Primodos was given to thousands of women in the 1960s and 70s which has been linked to miscarriages, birth defects and stillbirth. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and pharmaceutical company Bayer are applying to strike out court proceedings against them in a civil litigation case brought by the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests (ACDHPT). This would prevent a five-day hearing scheduled to take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in May 2023 from going ahead. The article outlines the argument brought by the DHSC and Bayer that no additional evidence has been found to warrant the case being brought by the ACDHPT. It then goes on to highlight recent research that has established a causal link between HPTs and birth malformations and that therefore gives credence to the litigation. Sharon highlights the importance of the legal system acknowledging and confronting the damage inflicted upon the families affected by the use of Primodos, many of whom have been seeking justice for decades. Related reading Primodos, mesh and sodium valproate: Recommendations and the UK Government’s response (Sharon Hartles, August 2021) Sodium Valproate: The Fetal Valproate Syndrome Tragedy A year on from the Cumberlege Review: Initial reflections on the Government’s response (Patient Safety Learning, 23 July 2021)
  17. Event
    Amy Walsh, an experienced IV nurse, will address the clinical negligence issues surrounding extravasation including: incidence and aetiology, presentation and recognition, management, treatment and prognosis of this iatrogenic injury. Register
  18. News Article
    The government is actively considering whether to give full legal powers to an independent inquiry investigating the deaths of mental health patients. Roughly 2,000 deaths at the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) are being examined. The BBC understands Conservative Health Secretary Stephen Barclay is minded to make the inquiry statutory, which would compel witnesses to come forward. Only 11 current and former trust staff have agreed to give live evidence. Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died aged 20 while an inpatient at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, said families were "definitely" a step closer to what they had campaigned for. "We just need it converted [to a statutory inquiry] - it's just delay after delay after delay and we need those powers," she told BBC Essex. Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 April 2023
  19. News Article
    A review of the whistleblowing framework – the laws that support workers who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace – has been launched by the Government. The review will seek views and evidence from whistleblowers, key charities, employers and regulators. Whistleblowing refers to when a worker makes a disclosure of information which they reasonably believe shows wrongdoing or someone covering up wrongdoing. Workers who blow the whistle are entitled to protections, which were introduced through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). Successive governments have taken steps to strengthen whistleblowing policy and practice. It provides a route for employees to report unsafe working conditions and wrongdoing across all sectors. This was keenly felt during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, when the Care Quality Commission and Health and Safety Executive recorded sharp increases in the number of whistleblowing disclosures they received. The review will gather evidence on the effectiveness of the current regime in enabling workers to speak up about wrongdoing and protect those who do so. The evidence gathering stage of the review will conclude in Autumn 2023. Read full press release Source: Gov.UK, 27 March 2023
  20. News Article
    People dying in the UK face “uncontrollable” pain and “unbearable suffering”, which palliative care alone cannot fix, according to the first evidence to a major new parliamentary inquiry asking if assisted dying should finally be legalised. In a shocking submission in favour of a law change, Molly Meacher told the Commons health and social care committee that the reality of end of life could include vomiting faeces, endless nausea and decaying tumours that smelled so bad they drove people out of hospital wards. People “are existing, they’re not living”, the crossbench peer and chair of the charity Dignity in Dying told the committee inquiry, which comes eight years after the House of Commons last considered changing legislation in 2015. Arguing strongly against any law change, Ilora Finlay, a crossbench peer and palliative care physician warned of the risk of “elder abuse” being worsened by a law change and said wider availability of palliative care, which remains patchy in the UK, must instead be a priority. Charles Falconer, a Labour peer and former Lord Chancellor, described the current situation, where dying people sometimes withdraw their own treatment rather than taking drugs to end their life, as “a mess”. He proposed that assisted dying should be available only to terminally ill people and not those facing “unbearable suffering”, as others have suggested. A diagnosis would be needed from two doctors plus approval from high court judge. “The bills that have been proposed [previously but defeated] say the person who decides to have an assisted death must have the capacity to make that decision,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2023
  21. News Article
    The high-profile Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo admits making an error by going “too far” and damaging a patient, but maintains she was told of the risks. The doctor on Monday appeared at a medical disciplinary hearing to explain how two women patients ended up with catastrophic brain injuries. Teo also defended allegations that he acted inappropriately by slapping a patient in an attempt to rouse her after surgery, contrasting it with Will Smith’s notorious slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards last year. “It wakes them up and it wakes them up pretty quickly. And I will continue to do it.” Charlie Teo tells inquiry he ‘did the wrong thing’ in surgery that left patient in vegetative state One of the issues the panel of legal and medical experts is considering is whether the women and their families were adequately informed of the risks of surgery. Both women had terminal brain tumours and had been given from weeks to months to live. They were left in essentially vegetative states after the surgeries and died soon after. “We were told he could give us more time,” one of the husbands said, according to court documents. “There was never any information about not coming out of it". Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023
  22. News Article
    The UK is supposed to have one of the best systems in the world for preventing vulnerable people being exploited for their organs. How then did one of its biggest hospitals become embroiled in the macabre trade of kidney harvesting? The UK’s first trial organ trafficking trial has exposed alarming vulnerabilities to a illegal trade that makes up 10% of transplants worldwide. The case has highlighted how poverty can tempt some people to sell their body parts to those willing to exploit an acute global shortage of organs for donation. The case heard that doctors at a private renal unit at London’s Royal Free hospital and the regulators, the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), were fooled by Dr Obinna Obeta, into approving his kidney transplant in July 2021. As the prosecutor, Hugh Davies, said: “If there’s a lesson to be learned here – those clinicians need to set the index of suspicion for safeguarding somewhat lower.” Dominique Martin, a professor of health ethics at Australia’s Deakin University who studies organ trafficking, said the case highlighted the need for robust vetting by hospitals and regulators. She said: “There is a level of complacency, including in the UK, the US and Australia regarding the risks of organ trafficking happening within our borders. Screening programmes may not be as strong as we assume or as consistently implemented as we might expect.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 March 2023
  23. Content Article
    In this article, Bevan Brittan Trainee Solicitor Angus Kirkwood draws on his past experience working as a physiotherapist whilst discussing the topic of informed consent in medical practice. Informed consent is a key issue in medical practice. In this article, he briefly consider the law around informed consent and reflects on his previous experience working as a physiotherapist for 7 years to explore the challenges in clinical practice. Angus concludes by providing some practical advice designed to assist practitioners with meeting their legal duties.
  24. Content Article
    Whistleblowing is synonymous with the exposure of wrongdoing by informed insiders, and is recognised by organisations and governments as an important and positive act in the fight against crime, corruption and cover up. This report was produced by WhistleblowersUK as secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Whistleblowing and sets out the case for an Independent Office of the Whistleblower. It outlines how this can address the failure of the UK to make whistleblowing work for society. Working with groups of experts and specialists including those from academia and law from around the world, the APPG has drawn up the “Whistleblowing Bill”.
  25. News Article
    The patient lay slumped next to a pile of pills and a personally signed note reading: 'do not resuscitate me'. His breathing was agonal, his skin mottled, his pupils fixed, no pulse discernible. The attending doctor, in agreement with both paramedics and family member, decided to respect his wishes. Yet, this GP was placed under investigation for gross negligence manslaughter by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for not resuscitating the patient, setting in motion a sequence of investigations, including by the coroner and the General Medical Council (GMC), that were triggered by the statement of one policeman at the scene. All investigations and allegations were eventually dismissed but not until the GP had been through years of significant physical and mental stress. Still today, questions remain unanswered – in particular, concerning the actions of the police and the CPS. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, the GP spoke to Medscape News UK, and said that now, over 7 years after that fateful home visit, she remained resolute that she made the correct clinical decisions at the time. "It has all been very stressful for me. What was behind this case? What was driving this potential prosecution? And throughout, the patient, the family and their concerns were completely forgotten in the pursuit of so-called justice," she pointed out. Read full story Source: Medscape News, 9 March 2023
×
×
  • Create New...