Making amends or making things worse? Clinical negligence reform and patient redress in England

Legal Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Maree Farrell ◽  
Sarah Devaney

This paper examines the government’s reform of the current system of clinical negligence litigation in England, focusing on an analysis of the redress scheme for low value claims to be established under the NHS Redress Act 2006. The Act establishes a scheme to provide a package of redress to patients in circumstances where they have suffered harm as a result of negligence during the course of medical treatment provided by the NHS. One of the British Government’s central aims in embarking upon reform in this area was to provide a low cost, quick and genuine alternative to the current clinical negligence litigation system. This paper critically analyses this reform of the current system by reference to an examination of what constitutes a just redress scheme in the circumstances. Such analysis shows that the government has missed a golden opportunity to establish a scheme which truly ‘makes amends’ to patients who have suffered harm through medical treatment in the NHS. Instead, the scheme is likely to operate in practice as an administrative scheme for low value claims that serves the institutional and financial interests of the NHS, and therefore fails to address longstanding patient concerns over the provision of redress arising out of harm suffered through medical treatment. As a result, patient confidence in the scheme is likely to be undermined in the long term.

Author(s):  
Diana Hancock ◽  
Wayne Passmore

Abstract In recent years, the government has greatly extended its reach into the mortgage markets with the goals of (1) mitigating the deadweight losses associated with mortgage foreclosures, (2) promoting affordable homeownership, and (3) providing low cost mortgage financing. In this paper, we identify three innovations-one in each of these areas-that could be made to the American mortgage market that would help obtain the government's objectives while enhancing financial market stability-particularly if all are done together. These three innovations are: (1) “buy your own mortgage" options, (2) variable maturity mortgages, and (3) creation of a government mortgage bond insurer, with an emphasis on insuring covered bonds as well as GSE debt. The first innovation would allow homebuyers to repurchase their mortgage at the “market value" of their homes when they move, thereby helping society avoid some of the deadweight losses associated with unnecessary foreclosures. The second innovation would provide a mortgage that could promote affordable housing without unduly raising the default risks of low- and moderate-income families. The third innovation would help create a variety of financing options for mortgages in the United States. Moreover, it could be integrated into the current system of mortgage financing, which would include government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), in a manner that would help the government manage the systemic risks associated with the quasi-government backing of mortgage credit and mortgage insurance. In particular, we propose that the government explicitly insure pre-designated financial instruments used to fund mortgage credit (such as covered bonds and GSE debt) by creating a government-backed insurance fund similar to that currently used for deposits.


The future of tourism and communication technology are intertwined. As Toffler observed with other revolutionary change, an inter-relationship will be difficult to predict but rewards will be substantial to those who are ahead of the curve. Two critical forces will continue to collide: increased democratization of tourism and increased focus on sustainable use of resources. The growth in incomes and the expansion of low-cost air service make China, India, and a few other developing countries the most rapidly growing tourism markets. This is particularly the case in parts of the Islamic world, resulting in rapidly expanding numbers of Muslims who seek to undertake the Haj. As detailed in a case study, this has resulted in demolition of much of ancient Mecca to make way for tourist hotels, a case where it appears the Saudi government is more interested in offsetting declining oil revenues with tourism revenues than with preservation of a unique tourism asset. Elsewhere the threat of over-tourism is evident in many places. In Europe, this is most evident in Venice where as tourism has expanded, the prices charged for overnight accommodations have shot up, forcing long-term residents to move out of the city and to endure commutes to their places of work back in the city. Local government has a choice – see the asset degrade or limit tourism. The market is well suited to limit tourism, but if the government imposes fees, say a day pass to enter the city, is this an equitable option (i.e., potentially making the city available only to wealthy visitors)? The nation of Bhutan has already imposed a high fee for visitors as a method to maintain the nation's happiness index. The future of tourism is uncertain as is the impact that technology change and concern regarding sustainability.


Author(s):  
Anis Sabirin Baharom ◽  
Nofri Yenita Dahlan

This paper presents a novel System Dynamics model for solar thermal installed capacity for Malaysian Industries. The objective of this paper is to foresee the influences of technical acceptance and willingness of the Malaysian industries to install the solar thermal system to replace the current system for heating process. Results revealed the Malaysian industries interest level on solar thermal is low. Therefore to increase the interest, Malaysian industries need more booster supports from the government to increase the investment in new technology, which will advantage the company and Malaysia in long-term. Not only industries, the policy makers will also benefit from the outcome, to tailor the framework for solar thermal in developing the solar thermal policy for industries in Malaysia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63
Author(s):  
Andrew Chun Kit Yu

AbstractThis paper seeks to examine why political parties in Hong Kong are fragmented and how the development of political parties in Hong Kong leads to social discord. Political parties started to emerge in Hong Kong in the 1980s. They had a golden opportunity to develop in the 1990s due to political reform, but why are political parties in Hong Kong still small, weak, with poor reputations and weak support? The author points out five factors that lead to the malfunction of political parties in Hong Kong. Although some factors are caused by the political parties themselves, the author argues that they are, all in all, constitutional or institutional factors, as they are long-term restraints directly set by the government since the colonial era. Due to the failure of party development in Hong Kong caused by constitutional and institutional restraints, the author will also discuss how this failure has lead to the political and social discord in the past two decades since the handover and the future.


Author(s):  
Carl Malings ◽  
Rebecca Tanzer ◽  
Aliaksei Hauryliuk ◽  
Provat K. Saha ◽  
Allen L. Robinson ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Mohd. Shuhaimi Ishak

 Abstract Generally speaking, media is extensively used as the means to disseminate news and information pertaining to business, social, political and religious concerns. A portion of the time and space of media has now become an important device to generate economic and social activities that include advertising, marketing, recreation and entertainment. The Government regards them as an essential form of relaying news and information to its citizens and at the same time utilizes them as a powerful public relations’ mechanism. The effects of media are many and diverse, which can either be short or long term depending on the news and information. The effects of media can be found on various fronts, ranging from the political, economic and social, to even religious spheres. Some of the negative effects arising from the media are cultural and social influences, crimes and violence, sexual obscenities and pornography as well as liberalistic and extreme ideologies. This paper sheds light on these issues and draws principles from Islam to overcome them. Islam as revealed to humanity contains the necessary guidelines to nurture and mould the personality of individuals and shape them into good servants. Key Words: Media, Negative Effects, Means, Islam and Principles. Abstrak Secara umum, media secara meluas digunakan sebagai sarana untuk menyebarkan berita dan maklumat yang berkaitan dengan perniagaan, kemasyarakatan, pertimbangan politik dan agama. Sebahagian dari ruang dan masa media kini telah menjadi peranti penting untuk menghasilkan kegiatan ekonomi dan sosial yang meliputi pengiklanan, pemasaran, rekreasi dan hiburan. Kerajaan menganggap sarana-sarana ini sebagai wadah penting untuk menyampaikan berita dan maklumat kepada warganya dan pada masa yang sama juga menggunakannya sebagai mekanisme perhubungan awam yang berpengaruh. Pengaruh media sangat banyak dan pelbagai, samada berbentuk jangka pendek atau panjang bergantung kepada berita dan maklumat yang brekenaan. Kesan dari media boleh didapati mempengaruhi pelbagai aspek, bermula dari bidang politik, ekonomi, sosial bahkan juga agama. Beberapa kesan negatif yang timbul dari media ialah pengaruhnya terhadap budaya dan sosial, jenayah dan keganasan, kelucahan seksual dan pornografi serta ideologi yang liberal dan ekstrim. Kertas ini menyoroti isu-isu ini dan cuba mengambil prinsip-prinsip dari ajaran Islam untuk mengatasinya. Tujuan Islam itu sendiri diturunkan kepada umat manusia ialah untuk menjadi pedoman yang diperlukan untuk membina dan membentuk keperibadian individu dan menjadikan manusia hamba yang taat kepada Tuhannya. Kata Kunci: Media, Kesan Negatif, Cara-cara, Islam dan Prinsip-prinsip.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawand Essa

BACKGROUND In the span of COVID-19, the mortality rate has been different from one country to another. As a country in the Middle East Iraq has a critical position, lies between Iran and Turkey while both countries coronavirus cases increase on daily basis, while Iranian mortality rate record is high similar to Turkey. After Wuhan city of China, Lombard of Italy, Qum city in Iran has the highest number of COVID-19 as a first country in the Middle East. OBJECTIVE aim of this study is to show the effect of BCG vaccine during pandemic diseases, especially nowadays at the time of COVID-19. One of the crucial observations is the government preparedness and strategic planning prior pandemics, in which the BCG vaccine is an attenuated live vaccine for control of tuberculosis (TB). BCG vaccine has a non-specific immune effect that is used against pathogens like bacteria and viruses, through the promotion of pro-inflammatory cytokines' secretion. METHODS An epidemiological study has been performed, and it shows that some countries are more prone to contagious diseases like COVID-19, regardless of the main cultural, religious, societal similarities among the three mentioned countries. The information data has been collected from WHO reports and worldometer in 18 February 2020 to 10 May 2020. Regarding the efficacy of the BCG vaccine, relevant data has been retrieved from Google scholar, Pub-med and BCG world-atlas. RESULTS COVID-19 mortality rates are at peak in Iran and Turkey while the mortality rate is very low in Iraq, while the patients that died in Iraq all had history of other long-term diseases as heart disease, blood pressure, cancer etc. CONCLUSIONS From the experiences of the three countries in the life span of COVID-19, the historical plan of BCG vaccine in Iraq in cooperation with WHO since the last decades it shows that COVID-19 mortality rate is lower than other countries due to the early vaccination of the Iraqis, otherwise Iraq is more fragile than Iran and Turkey due to the poor conditions of Iraq in terms of economics, politics, war and other aspects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akihiko Ozaki ◽  
Yosuke Onoue ◽  
Anju Murayama ◽  
Taishi Tahara ◽  
Yuki Senoo ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Rural physician undersupply is a universal concern, leading to sudden physician absenteeism or unavailability on occasion. While media and social networking services may help mitigate these emergencies, information is lacking about their actual contribution in times of physician absenteeism. On December 30, 2016, the director and sole physician of Takano Hospital in Fukushima, Japan, died. The physician’s passing placed many hospitalized patients in danger. This sudden case of physician unavailability, named the Takano Hospital Crisis, provoked massive attention from the general public, in the media and on social media networks such as Twitter. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze newspaper articles, tweets and Twitter accounts relating to Takano Hospital Crisis. METHODS Newspaper articles and tweets were searched for keywords associated with Takano Hospital Crisis and its former director between October 2016 and June 2017. We first evaluated the chronological change in the number of articles and tweets, and the number of characters and relevant keywords in the articles. Then tweets and influencers who were popular on the Twitter platform from December 30, 2016 to February 28, 2017, were categorized. RESULTS We assessed 151 newspaper articles and 67,006 tweets. The results show that number of newspaper articles and tweets steeply increased and then diminished within the first month of the incident. The median number of characters in newspapers articles was 436 and the most frequent keyword was medical doctor. There were 753 original tweets that were retweeted more than four times from December 30, 2016 to February 28, 2017. Of these, 245 (32.5%) expressed concern. Notable influencers were journalists, news media outlets, and healthcare professionals that helped with fund raising and providing clinical service in the hospital. CONCLUSIONS Twitter could temporarily function in cases of sudden physician absenteeism to attract volunteers and funding, however, this would not be a long-term solution. In a more general context, a long-term effort of supports from the hospitals themselves and the government will be required to manage the persistent state of physician absenteeism.


Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth

Two low-level armed conflicts, Indonesia’s East Timor and Ivory Coast’s post-2010 election crises, provide detailed qualitative evidence of highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) engaging in effective civil warpreventing activities in member-states. Highly structured IGOs threatened and sanctioned each of these states and offered (long-term) benefits conditional on successful crisis resolution. The governments were aware of and responded to these IGOs’ concerns, as did the rebels in these respective cases. The early stages of the conflict in Syria in 2011 provide a counterpoint. With Syria’s limited engagement in only few highly structured IGOs, the Syrian government ignored international calls for peace. And, without highly structured IGOs’ counterweight to curtail the government, the rebels saw little reason to stop their armed resistance. The result was a brutal and deadly civil war that continues today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dingwang Huang ◽  
Lintao Li ◽  
Kang Wang ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Kuang Feng ◽  
...  

AbstractA highly efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly photocathode with long-term stability is the goal of practical solar hydrogen evolution applications. Here, we found that the Cu3BiS3 film-based photocathode meets the abovementioned requirements. The Cu3BiS3-based photocathode presents a remarkable onset potential over 0.9 VRHE with excellent photoelectrochemical current densities (~7 mA/cm2 under 0 VRHE) and appreciable 10-hour long-term stability in neutral water solutions. This high onset potential of the Cu3BiS3-based photocathode directly results in a good unbiased operating photocurrent of ~1.6 mA/cm2 assisted by the BiVO4 photoanode. A tandem device of Cu3BiS3-BiVO4 with an unbiased solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 2.04% is presented. This tandem device also presents high stability over 20 hours. Ultimately, a 5 × 5 cm2 large Cu3BiS3-BiVO4 tandem device module is fabricated for standalone overall solar water splitting with a long-term stability of 60 hours.


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