scholarly journals Should age matter in COVID-19 triage? A deliberative study

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-107071
Author(s):  
Margot N I Kuylen ◽  
Scott Y Kim ◽  
Alexander Ruck Keene ◽  
Gareth S Owen

The COVID-19 pandemic put a large burden on many healthcare systems, causing fears about resource scarcity and triage. Several COVID-19 guidelines included age as an explicit factor and practices of both triage and ‘anticipatory triage’ likely limited access to hospital care for elderly patients, especially those in care homes. To ensure the legitimacy of triage guidelines, which affect the public, it is important to engage the public’s moral intuitions. Our study aimed to explore general public views in the UK on the role of age, and related factors like frailty and quality of life, in triage during the COVID-19 pandemic. We held online deliberative workshops with members of the general public (n=22). Participants were guided through a deliberative process to maximise eliciting informed and considered preferences. Participants generally accepted the need for triage but strongly rejected ‘fair innings’ and ‘life projects’ principles as justifications for age-based allocation. They were also wary of the ‘maximise life-years’ principle, preferring to maximise the number of lives rather than life years saved. Although they did not arrive at a unified recommendation of one principle, a concern for three core principles and values eventually emerged: equality, efficiency and vulnerability. While these remain difficult to fully respect at once, they captured a considered, multifaceted consensus: utilitarian considerations of efficiency should be tempered with a concern for equality and vulnerability. This ‘triad’ of ethical principles may be a useful structure to guide ethical deliberation as societies negotiate the conflicting ethical demands of triage.

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McCollum ◽  
Beata Nowok ◽  
Scott Tindal

Scotland is often perceived as having a relatively welcoming view towards migrants and is presented as such by its politicians and policymakers. This positioning sits within a broader political context in which the Scottish Government favours immigration but has limited policy levers with which to directly influence it. This paper seeks to scrutinise the supposition that Scotland can be seen as ‘different’ to the rest of the UK in terms of how immigration is perceived in the public realm. This is pursued through the analysis of attitudinal data to explore public views on migration, the potential drivers of these perceptions and their implications for future immigration policy in the context of the 2014 referendum on the constitutional future of Scotland. The research finds that the public in Scotland does hold relatively positive views towards migration and that this could be related to Scotland's particular experience of population in and out movements. However there is evidence of some (growing) hostility towards migration on the part of the general public in Scotland and a possible link between nationalist leanings and opposition to ‘Others’. These findings have significant implications for debates regarding possible future immigration policies in Scotland.


2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 200-202
Author(s):  
NJG Bauer ◽  
A Wilson ◽  
RJ Grimer

The General Medical Council is assigned the role of safeguarding and maintaining the health and wellbeing of the public by the Medical Act 1983. All doctors and surgeons in the UK are bound by their professional standards and regulations. Surgeons have to abide by the standards set by The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), which are deemed 'reasonable, assessable and achievable by all competent surgeons'. One of these standards is the overriding duty to ensure that 'all medical records are legible, complete and contemporaneous'. It is vital that all medical and surgical notes document each consultation or procedure that the patient has undergone during his or her stay in hospital.


Author(s):  
Carol Porteous

BackgroundThere has, in recent years been much discussion in administrative data research about communicating with the public about the research undertaken, listening to the public and trying to understand public views and questioning whether the public have trust in the work undertaken using publicly collected administrative data. ObjectivesTo explore the role of public engagement in dialogue with attendees to try and address whether we are missing the point and value of public engagement. The views of publics are not homogenous, static and also respond to news headlines and data breaches and we can never know the views of 65 million people across the UK, so why do we worry so much about the views of the public and how can we ever know what publics think? FindingsSummarising work undertaken in examining public attitudes and reflections on five years of working in public engagement in administrative data research will explore key questions with the audience including. Is there value in considering the views of the public, and if so what is the value? How is the public constituted in its relationships with academia and do the public play a key position in the role of universities within our society?


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 82-118
Author(s):  
YANA TOOM ◽  
◽  
VALENTINA V. KOMLEVA ◽  

The article studies the main stages and features of the evolution of the public administration system in the Republic of Estonia after 1992. This paper presents brief geographical and socio-economic characteristics that largely determine the development of the country’s public administration. The evolution of the institution of the presidency, executive, and legislative powers are considered. The role of parliament and mechanisms for coordinating the interests of different groups of the population for the development of the country is especially emphasized. The authors analyze the state and administrative reforms of recent years, which were aimed at improving the quality of services provided to the population, increasing the competitiveness of different parts of Estonia, as well as optimizing public spending and management structure. The introduction of digital technologies into the sphere of public administration, healthcare, education, and the social sphere is of a notable place. Such phenomena as e-residency, e-federation, and other digital projects are considered. The development of a digital system of interstate interaction between Estonia and Finland made it possible to create the world’s first e-federation, and the digitization of all strategically important information and its transfer to cloud storage speaks of the creation of the world’s first e-residency, a special residence of data outside the country’s borders to ensure digital continuity and statehood in the event of critical malfunctions or external threats.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Warnaby ◽  
David Bennison ◽  
Barry J. Davies

The role of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the UK has expanded to incorporate a more overt and explicit focus on marketing and promotion. This paper considers the marketing/promotional activities of TCM schemes in the UK. TCM schemes operate at the interface of the public and private sectors. The implications of this are discussed, including the need for a consensual approach by a wide range of urban stakeholders, and the actual activities undertaken, influenced by the funding imperative under which such schemes operate (which impacts on the feasibility of certain activities and the efforts made to evaluate them). Comparisons are drawn between specific place marketing practice by TCM schemes and wider place marketing strategies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (S1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gray

Water supply companies in the UK have a duty under prime UK legislation to notify the Drinking Water Inspectorate of events affecting or potentially affecting the quality of drinking-water supplies. Under the same legislation, the Inspectorate has a duty to investigate each event. After assessing all of the information available, including companies' reports, the Inspectorate advises on the way in which the event was handled and whether any statutory requirements were contravened. If appropriate, a prosecution of the water company may be initiated. Copies of the assessment are sent to the water company, relevant local and health authorities, Ofwat (the economic regulator), the regional Consumer Council for Water and any other interested parties, including consumers who request it. Generic guidance may be issued to the industry on matters of wider concern. This paper considers the role of the Inspectorate, the powers available to it and reporting arrangements. An overview is presented of events that occurred between 1990 and 2005 and common features are identified. Causes of different types of event are discussed. The importance of well-established contacts between the various interested parties involved in protecting public health is emphasised through discussion of example incidents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nando Sigona ◽  
Jotaro Kato ◽  
Irina Kuznetsova

AbstractThe article examines the migration infrastructures and pathways through which migrants move into, through and out of irregular status in Japan and the UK and how these infrastructures uniquely shape their migrant experiences of irregularity at key stages of their migration projects.Our analysis brings together two bodies of migration scholarship, namely critical work on the social and legal production of illegality and the impact of legal violence on the lives of immigrants with precarious legal status, and on the role of migration infrastructures in shaping mobility pathways.Drawing upon in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular and precarious migrants in Japan and the UK collected over a ten-year period, this article develops a three-pronged analysis of the infrastructures of irregularity, focusing on infrastructures of entry, settlement and exit, casting a comparative light on the mechanisms that produce precarious and expendable migrant lives in relation to access to labour and labour conditions, access and quality of housing and law enforcement, and how migrants adapt, cope, resist or eventually are overpowered by them.


Author(s):  
Michael Gideon Josian ◽  
Maria Veronica Gandha

The future of dwelling has a very board context and will continue to be discussed, it is possible that the discussions about “dwelling” is come from the environment of farming and fishing. Things that are not much cared for but still have a role in the survival of the world. Therefore this matter will be discussed using the role of architecture as space, to be able to create an ideal system by paying attention to the quality of farming and fishing for the future, and leaving a trace or memory to be able to carry messages for the future. Talking about the future of an interaction that occurs between the general public and farmers and fishermen, especially considering that farmers and fishermen themselves can be compared to two different poles, a liminal space is needed, which may already exist indirectly in the environment. By letting go of individual egos and emphasizing ego to the point of view of farmers and fishermen. To present a common space, or a place that contains a special character of a city that contains a message for the future. Keywords:  dualism; hope; liminal; trace;  Abstrak Masa depan cara berhuni memiliki konteks yang sangat luas dan akan terus diperbincangkan. Tidak menutup kemungkinan datang dari pembahasan mengenai cara berhuni dengan bertani dan melaut. Hal yang tidak banyak dipedulikan tetapi tetap memiliki peran dalam kelangsungan dunia. Oleh karena itu, masa depan berhuni ini akan dibahas dengan menggunakan peran arsitektur sebagai ruang, untuk dapat menciptakan sistem yang ideal dengan memperhatikan kualitas bertani dan melaut bagi masa depan, dan meninggalkan sebuah jejak atau kenangan untuk dapat membawa pesan bagi masa depan. Berbicara mengenai masa depan dari sebuah interaksi yang terjadi antara masyarakat umum dengan para petani dan nelayan, apalagi mengingat para petani dan nelayan itu sendiri dapat diibaratkan berada pada kedua kutub yang berbeda, maka dibutuhkanlah sebuah ruang liminal, yang mungkin sudah hadir secara tidak langsung pada lingkungan masyarakat. Dengan cara melepaskan ego individual dan menekankan ego kepada sudut pandang para petani dan nelayan. Untuk menghadirkan sebuah ruang bersama, atau sebuah tempat yang mengandung sebuah karakter tersendiri dari sebuah kota yang berisi pesan bagi masa depan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-662
Author(s):  
Franco Zappettini

This paper discusses how emotions were mobilised by the British tabloid press as discursive strategies of persuasion during the public debate on the implementation of Brexit. Using the case study of the Suns coverage of the alleged UKs humiliation at the Salzburg meeting (2018) during the Brexit negotiations, the analysis addresses the questions of how and through which linguistic means actors and events were framed discursively in such an article. The findings suggest that The Sun elicited emotions of fear, frustration, pride, and freedom to frame Brexit along a long-established narrative of domination and national heroism. The discourse was also sustained by a discursive prosody in keeping with a satirical genre and a populist register that have often characterised the British tabloid press. In particular the linguistic analysis has shown how antagonistic representations of the UK and the EU were driven by an allegory of incompetent gangsterism and morally justified resistance. Emotionalisation in the article was thus aimed both at ridiculing the EU and at representing it as a criminal organisation. Such framing was instrumental in pushing the newspaper agenda as much as in legitimising and institutionalising harder forms of Brexit with the tabloids readership. Approaching journalist discourse at the intersection of affective, stylistic, and political dimensions of communication, this paper extends the body of literature on the instrumental use of emotive arguments and populist narratives and on the wider historical role of tabloid journalism in representing political relations. between the UK and the EU.


Author(s):  
John Gastil ◽  
Laura Black

The discipline of communication encompasses a broad spectrum of humanistic, interpretive, and social scientific approaches to studying public deliberation. Early work engaged Habermasian theories of the public sphere, and rhetorical scholarship has foregrounded the deliberative threads running back to the discipline’s earliest history in ancient Greece. The bulk of contemporary work, however, has examined the dynamics of deliberation, particularly in the context of face-to-face discussions and dialogues in small groups. These studies have revealed the importance of narrative and dialogic exchanges during deliberation, as well as the critical role of facilitation and the maintenance of deliberative norms. Research has also assessed the practical consequences of participating in deliberation. The discipline’s practical orientation has led some scholars to seek ways to optimize deliberative designs to maximize simultaneously the quality of their decision outputs and their civic impacts on participants.


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