Who is Calling the Piper? Is There a Tune? The New Regulatory Systems for Medical Devices in the United Kingdom and Canada

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Longley
Keyword(s):  
Medical Devices ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
Mutual Recognition Agreement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Substantial Change

Substantial change to the regulation of medical devices in both the UK and Canada, and the development of a mutual recognition agreement which affects the two jurisdictions, raises concerns about the possibility of balancing the need for flexibility regarding the industry and trade on the one hand, and the public interest in health and safety on the other.

EVALUATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT SERVICE 2008 (UK NEQAS 2008) GUIDELINES FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE USING SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC XANTHOCHROMIA: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (6S) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
A Gangloff ◽  
L Nadeau
Keyword(s):  
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ◽  
Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy ◽  
Viral Encephalitis ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
Final Diagnosis ◽  
Amyloid Angiopathy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Cerebral Amyloid ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk

Objective: Evaluation of the UK NEQAS 2008 guidelines for the interpretation of spectrophotometric xanthochromia. Method: A search of the laboratory database for all the xanthochromia test results between May 1st 2008 and May 1st 2009 was performed. Medical charts were reviewed for patients of Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus (HEJ) that had at least one detectable pigment (bilirubin, oxyhemoglobin, or methemoglobin). Xanthochromia results obtained with 4 different criteria (Chalmers original, Modified Chalmers, Duiser and UK NEQAS 2008) were compared. Results: We reviewed 41 medical charts (2 patients with duplicate lumbar punctures (LP) for a total of 43 LP). For these 41 patients there were 11 positive xanthochromia results, 5 of which were in concordance with a final diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The diagnosis of the 6 other positive xanthochromia results were as follow: meningeal spread of a lymphoma, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, exertional headache, viral encephalitis with a possibility of petechiaes on the cerebral CT and second LP. Interpretation (negative/positive) of 40/43 LP was identical for the 4 methods. 2 LP were positive with Duiser and UK NEQAS 2008 but negative with Chalmers approaches (final diagnosis: SAH and cerebral amyloid angiopathy). 1 LP was positive only by the Duiser method (viral encephalitis). Conclusions: UK NEQAS 2008 guidelines identified all SAH but are sensitive to traumatic and pathologic meningeal lesions. Except for a case of viral encephalitis with a suspicion of cerebral petechiaes on CT, UK NEQAS 2008 gave xanthochromia results similar to the one in use at HEJ (Duiser). Chalmers original and Modified Chalmers methods missed one of the five SAH.

scholarly journals Can Political Trust Help to Explain Elite Policy Support and Public Behaviour in Times of Crisis? Evidence from the United Kingdom at the Height of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172098090
Author(s):  
James Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk

Trust between representatives and citizens is regarded as central to effective governance in times of peace and uncertainty. This article tests that assumption by engaging elite and mass perspectives to provide a 360-degree appraisal of vertical and horizontal policy coordination in a crisis scenario. Specifically, a multi-dimensional conception of political trust, anchored in psychological studies of interpersonal relations, is operationalised in the context of the United Kingdom’s response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Detailed analysis of data collected from 1045 members of the public and more than 250 elected politicians suggests that particular facets of political trust and distrust may have contributed to levels of mass behavioural compliance and elite policy support in the UK at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. These findings help to evaluate policy success during a unique and challenging moment while contributing theoretically and methodologically to broader studies of political trust and governance.

Papers please: Predictive factors for national and international COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passport uptake as determined by representative surveys (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Joshua Paul White ◽  
Simon Dennis ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Cheng-Ta Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Factors ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
The Uk

BACKGROUND In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? This study focuses attention on immunity passports, as these may prove useful in countries both with and without an existing COVID-19 vaccination program, however, our general findings also extend to vaccination passports. OBJECTIVE We aimed to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports in six countries, and determine what social, personal, and contextual factors predicted their support. METHODS We collected online representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – from April to May of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed attitudes and support for the introduction of immunity passports. RESULTS Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, 47% in Australia and Spain, 46% in Taiwan, and 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling assessed predictive factors for immunity passport support across countries. International results showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries and results were modelled separately to provide national accounts of these data. CONCLUSIONS Our research suggests that support for immunity passports is predicted by the personal benefits and social risks they confer. These findings generalized across six countries and may also prove informative for the introduction of vaccination passports, helping policy makers to introduce effective COVID-19 passport policies in these six countries and around the world.

Workplace and Health: A Survey of Classical Orchestral Musicians in the United Kingdom and Germany

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-92
Author(s):  
Beatrice S Harper
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Orchestral Musicians

This article presents the results of a survey that was carried out among UK and German professional classical musicians between November 2000 and April 2001. The UK Musicians’ Union and the German musicians’ union, the Deutsche Orchester Vereinigung (DOV), assisted greatly with the duplication and distribution of the questionnaires. Selected results have been disseminated to the respondents via the UK Musicians’ Union journal, Musician. A full report will appear in Cultural Trends, to be published in 2002 by the Policy Studies Institute, London. The survey covered many aspects of musicians’ perceptions of occupational health and safety, the provision of appropriate information, their general working conditions, and their health. One of the main aims was to bring to the forefront a discussion of musicians’ working conditions and to raise awareness of the range of problems that exist. Key findings identify areas of concern to the respondents, in particular, regarding the environmental conditions of their workplaces. Additionally, findings indicate the use and effectiveness of the measures used by musicians to ameliorate a range of occupational hazards. This article also reports the respondents’ hearing problems, and which medical and alternative practitioners the sample consulted in cases of work-related ill health. The contrasting structure of the profession determined the choice of the United Kingdom and Germany for this study. The UK classical music workforce is predominantly freelance, whereas in Germany there are relatively few freelance musicians, and most orchestral musicians have the status of local government employees. One of the aims of the survey was to elicit information that might indicate whether such different conditions of employment affect the working lives of musicians. This article is organized in two parts. The first part places this survey in context and discusses the particular range of health problems highlighted by the respondents. The second part presents the survey and its findings.

Guidelines for Fixed Wing Air Ambulance Flights

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-297
Author(s):  
R.J. Fairhurst ◽  
Captain D. Antrobus
Keyword(s):  
International Travel ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Air Ambulances ◽  
Air Ambulance ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
Medical Transport ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Seriously Ill

The easy availability of small aircraft for charter, has been accompanied by increasing willingness on the part of insurance companies to pay the costs for the use of these air ambulances. Operators of aircraft in the United Kingdom and Europe were becoming increasingly worried about the moral, medical and legal implications of carrying seriously ill or injured passengers. In late 1980 the UK Air Taxi Operators Association (ATOA) began to formulate Guidelines for air ambulance operations, and in 1981 these were incorporated into the studies of the same subject by the International Business Aircraft Association (IBAA), Europe. This paper presents the Guidelines adopted by the ATOA and ratified by IBAA Europe. The Guidelines are designed not to hamper the development of aeormedical rescue, but to bring it within a proper medical aeronautical framework for the safety of the patients, and medical and aircraft crews.During the last 30 years development of the international travel market in Europe has resulted in many patients becoming ill or suffering injuries many miles from their own home. In the past these people would have remained in a local hospital and received treatment by the locally available facilities. There has been a revolution in the technology of medical transport, providing skills and equipment which allows the most seriously injured people to be transported over long distances. The public demand has pressed insurance companies to offer as part of travel packages the possiblity of medical repatriation. The number of new serious medical cases abroad reported to Europ Assistance in London, rose from 736 in 1978 to a projected 3,500 in 1983.

Law of lactation breaks in the UK: employers’ perspectives

2018 ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Melanie Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Infant Feeding ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Returning To Work ◽  
Strategic Leaders ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Health And Safety Issues

This chapter looks into the legal understandings that managers have of lactation breaks. It gives a summary of the key legislation applicable in the United Kingdom and discusses how this is applied within the workplace. The chapter also gives some suggestions for how to improve the legislative backdrop in which women make decisions about their return to work, breastfeeding, and how this process can be better managed by employers. In the project described here, managers, human resources staff, and strategic leaders in a UK public sector organisation were asked about lactation breaks. This investigation shows a real-world context for decision-making around infant feeding. Managers displayed limited knowledge of the legislation and called for goodwill from all parties to resolve issues, better guidance, and perhaps legislation on the topic. There were some hesitancies about allowing a baby to visit the workplace, because of lack of suitable facilities, and health and safety issues. This chapter indicates that better procedures are needed for the process of returning to work as a new parent, and that lactation breaks should be part of that conversation.

Pesticide incidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive 1989/90- 1991/92

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 630-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Thompson ◽  
PB Casey ◽  
JA Vale
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Methyl Bromide ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Insufficient Data ◽  
Pesticide Poisoning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Occupational Setting ◽  
The Uk

1 Data concerning pesticide incidents investigated by the Field Operations Division (FOD) of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in Great Britain have been collated for the three year period April 1989 to March 1992. Over this period the HSE investigated 613 incidents concerning pes ticides : 338 related to general or environmental com plaints not involving human poisoning and 275 were sus pected poisoning incidents. 2 The two hundred and seventy-five suspected poisoning incidents were assessed by the Pesticide Incidents Appraisal Panel (PIAP) as 'confirmed', 'likely', 'unlikely', 'not confirmed', or that there were 'insufficient data' to make an assessment. Assessed data are unavailable for eight incidents reported in 1989. 3 Four hundred and eighteen members of the public were involved in 202 assessed incidents and 79 workers were exposed in 65 assessed incidents. Overall, 129 (48%) inci dents were assessed as 'confirmed' or 'likely', 121 (45%) as 'unlikely' or 'not confirmed' and in 17 (6%) there were 'insufficient data' to form a judgement. Incidents occur ring in an occupational setting were assessed as 'con firmed' or 'likely' more frequently (62%) than those involving members of the public (44%). 5 Thirty-six per cent of those involved in a 'confirmed' poisoning incident were working with a pesticide or were in close proximity to the operator; 41% were on private property adjacent to a field being sprayed and a further 23% involved those walking, cycling or jogging past a sprayed field. 6 These data underestimate the number of occupational pesticide poisoning incidents in Great Britain as incidents involving sheep dips are not considered by PIAP but are dealt with by a parallel scheme run by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. In addition, few of the non-occupa tional incidents, for example those referred to one of the UK National Poisons Information Service Centres, are included in these data. 7 Sixty deaths from pesticide poisoning were recorded in England and Wales between 1989-1991, though the major ity of cases followed the deliberate ingestion of a pesticide rather than occupational exposure. Only one of these was reported to the HSE and that concerned the deliberate ingestion of mevinphos. A second death reported to the HSE involved a farmer who died some 11 months after he became unwell following fumigation of his glasshouse soil with methyl bromide by a contractor. It is unlikely that this death was related to exposure to methyl bromide. 8 Over the 3 year period of the study there was an increase in the number of prosecutions laid before the courts (Under the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 made under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985), though the number of Enforcement Notices served decreased. In addition, the average total fine decreased for the incidents prosecuted successfully.

Classification schemes in art libraries in the United Kingdom

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Currier
Keyword(s):  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Electronic Resource ◽  
Classification Schemes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Discussion List ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Decimal Classification

Subject access to physical or electronic resource collections can be divided into two complementary areas: searching and browsing. Searching involves the use of subject headings, indexing terms from a controlled vocabulary, or natural language keywords. Browsing, whether along a shelf or through a subject tree on the Web, requires the application of some kind of taxonomy or classification scheme. This article looks at what class schemes art libraries are using to arrange their book collections in the UK today. Based on an informal survey via the ARLIS e-mail discussion list, it appears that the Dewey Decimal Classification is not only the most commonly used class scheme, but the one most art libraries choose when they reclassify their library.

scholarly journals An outbreak of Salmonella saint-paul infection associated with beansprouts

1990 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. O'Mahony ◽  
J. Cowden ◽  
B. Smyth ◽  
D. Lynch ◽  
M. Hall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Control Study ◽  
Saint Paul ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Retail Sale ◽  
The Public ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Salmonella Virchow ◽  
The One ◽  
Control Study

SUMMARYIn March 1988, there was an outbreak of infection by a strain of Salmonella saint-paul with a distinctive antigenic marker. A total of 143 reports were received between 1 March and 7 June. Preliminary investigations suggested that raw beansprouts were a possible source of infection and a case-control study confirmed the association. S. saint-paul of the epidemic type was isolated from samples of beansprouts on retail sale in different cities in the United Kingdom and from mung bean seeds on the premises of the producer who was most strongly associated with cases. In addition, Salmonella virchow PT34 was isolated from samples of raw beansprouts and was subsequently associated with seven cases of infection. Four other serotypes of salmonella were also isolated from beansprouts. On 8 April the public were advised to boil beansprouts for 15 seconds before consumption, and the premises of the one producer associated with many cases were closed. As a result of these actions there was a significant decrease in the number of infections with S. saint-paul.

Coping with Risk: The Case of Gas Facilities in Scotland

1984 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J Snowball ◽  
S M Macgill
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gas Processing ◽  
Port Authorities ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Interest Groups ◽  
Key Features

Aspects of the publicly acknowledged assessment of risk in siting-decisions in Scotland for potentially hazardous North Sea gas processing-installations are considered. Safety issues were of concern to the respective local authority councils and planning departments, the Health and Safety Executive, the developers seeking planning permission, and, in various instances, port authorities, Secretaries of State, and public-interest groups. The assessment of potential risk to the public by each of these main agencies is analysed and evaluated, illustrating key features from a decade which has seen significant changes in the art of risk assessment in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, and related, though rather more modest, changes in practice.

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