scholarly journals Professional self-regulation in a changing architecture of governance: comparing health policy in the UK and Germany

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Kuhlmann ◽  
Judith Allsop
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Whitmore ◽  
Roland Furber

The standards to which UK Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians work have historically been driven by the employer rather than a professional body. This in effect has meant that the National Health Service (NHS) Ambulance Services decided how educational programmes were structured and delivered. The private sector in the UK has also tended to look towards the NHS standards as the yardstick for their staff, although there has been significant difficulty in gaining the NHS award by the private sector. The advent of professional registration in 2000, and crucially the enactment of The Health Professions Order 2001 that resulted in the setting up of the Health Professions Council (HPC), prompted a real drive to develop a true professional body for UK ambulance staff. That professional body is the British Paramedic Association – College of Paramedics (BPA). The BPA has, since those early days, pursued true professional self-regulation of education and practice standards. The BPA acknowledges the immense task it has set itself, but believes that it can and must be achieved in order that education and practice standards continue to develop and deliver what is felt to be in the best interests of patients. By engaging with the HPC, the unions, employers and, very importantly, higher education institutions, the BPA will truly fulfill the requirements of a professional body for UK ambulance staff.


Author(s):  
Eddie Blass

This paper argues the case for professional bodies to lose their right to self-regulate wholly within their membership. Using the example of an analysis of six cases that were reported to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) as cases of false certification in the last 3 years, this paper demonstrates that self-regulation allows moral integrity to be sacrificed at the expense of economic imperatives, and individual judgements to be preferenced over fair process and procedure. Five of the six cases presented in this paper were upheld by the professional body and the sixth was dismissed and went through the British legal system instead. Narrative analysis of the case reports reveals a lack of consistency in the professional body’s analysis of motive, causal connections, responsibility regarding implications and their role as either purveyor of standards or mentor to the profession, which has resulted in anomalies that leave the profession in disarray. By failing to act ‘professionally’ itself, this paper argues that the RCVS itself has undermined five of its own ten guiding principles, and hence can no longer regulate its own membership. The need for professional regulation beyond those provided by the professions themselves is presented if only by the inclusion of lay-people in professional disciplinary hearings.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLEM TOUSIJN ◽  
VINCENZO MARIO BRUNO GIORGINO

AbstractSince the beginning of the 1990s, health policy in Italy has been characterised by continuous reform as reflected by the frequency of new measures. Importantly, the reforms have changed considerably many aspects of the health-care system, including the governance of medical performance. The new measures fall into two types: regionalisation and transformation of local providers into ‘health-care enterprises’. In relation to the governance of medical performance, more specifically, the reforms have entailed the introduction of budgeting and quality assurance, the creation of new managerial roles, and the transformation of existing roles, as well as the introduction of new mechanisms for evaluating medical performance. In terms of the specific forms of governance, the reforms have reinforced hierarchy-based forms of governing intermeshed with party governance, and have re-defined professional self-regulation by strengthening collective forms of professional self-regulation. The design and implementation of the reforms are subject to a complex process of negotiation, which involves a wide range of actors spread across different levels of governance and takes place in relation to all aspects of the governance of medical performance.


Author(s):  
I. Glenn Cohen

This chapter focuses on the right (or rights) to procreate in the United States, with a focus on reproductive technology use. The United States has been too often described as the “wild west” of reproductive technology use. When measured against many of its comparators—Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, etc.—it is undoubtedly true that more forms of reproductive technology use are permitted in the United States than elsewhere. It is for this reason that the United States has been a frequent destination for “circumvention tourism” or “fertility tourism.” At the same time, it would be wrong to think that reproductive medicine is unregulated in the United States. The chapter argues that it is just that the regulation is more fragmented, both in terms of the locus of control (federal vs. state authority, governmental vs. professional self-regulation, etc.) and also of the legal sources involved (more of a focus on tort law and family law than direct regulation at the statutory or constitutional level).


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ben Hannigan

Abstract Wales is a small country, with an ageing population, high levels of population health need and an economy with a significant reliance on public services. Its health system attracts little attention, with analyses tending to underplay the differences between the four countries of the UK. This paper helps redress this via a case study of Welsh mental health policy, services and nursing practice. Distinctively, successive devolved governments in Wales have emphasised public planning and provision. Wales also has primary legislation addressing sustainability and future generations, safe nurse staffing and rights of access to mental health services. However, in a context in which gaps always exist between national policy, local services and face-to-face care, evidence points to the existence of tension between Welsh policy aspirations and realities. Mental health nurses in Wales have produced a framework for action, which describes practice exemplars and looks forward to a secure future for the profession. With policy, however enlightened, lacking the singular potency to bring about intended change, nurses as the largest of the professional groups involved in mental health care have opportunities to make a difference in Wales through leadership, influence and collective action.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK EXWORTHY ◽  
PAULA HYDE ◽  
PAMELA MCDONALD-KUHNE

AbstractWe elaborate Le Grand's thesis of ‘knights and knaves’ in terms of clinical excellence awards (CEAs), the ‘financial bonuses’ which are paid to over half of all English hospital specialists and which can be as much as £75,000 (€92,000) per year in addition to an NHS (National Health Service) salary. Knights are ‘individuals who are motivated to help others for no private reward’ while knaves are ‘self-interested individuals who are motivated to help others only if by doing so they will serve their private interests.’ Doctors (individually and collectively) exhibit both traits but the work of explanation of the inter-relationship between them has remained neglected. Through a textual analysis of written responses to a recent review of CEAs, we examine the ‘knightly’ and ‘knavish’ arguments used by medical professional stakeholders in defending these CEAs. While doctors promote their knightly claims, they are also knavish in shaping the preferences of, and options for, policy-makers. Policy-makers continue to support CEAs but have introduced revised criteria for CEAs, putting pressure on the medical profession to accept reforms. CEAs illustrate the enduring and flexible power of the medical profession in the UK in colonising reforms to their pay, and also the subtle inter-relationship between knights and knaves in health policy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.C. Benton ◽  
M.A. González-Jurado ◽  
J.V. Beneit-Montesinos

1987 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 559-629
Author(s):  
Edward A. Johnston

1.1 A paper about the Appointed Actuary is essentially a paper about prudential supervision of life insurance companies. The system which has operated in the UK since the mid-1970's is only partly one of Government supervision. Through the professional role of the Appointed Actuary, it also contains elements of a system of self-regulation with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries standing in place of SRO's. Unlike the self-regulatory arrangements of the Financial Services Act. though, this second part of the system has grown up by custom and practice and in certain respects it is not codified. However it enables the Insurance Companies Act to be operated successfully.


2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Marsden ◽  
Mary E. Shaw ◽  
Sue Raynel

This paper compares the results of studies of ophthalmic advanced practice in two similar but distinct health economies and integrates the effects of the setting, health policy and professional regulation on such roles. A mixed method questionnaire design was used, distributed at national ophthalmic nursing conferences in the UK and in New Zealand. Participants were nurses undertaking advanced practice who opted to return the questionnaire. Data were analysed separately, and are compared here, integrated with national health policy and role regulation to provide commentary on the findings. The findings suggest that health policy priorities stimulate the areas in which advanced practice roles in ophthalmic nursing emerge. The drivers of role development appear similar and include a lack of experienced doctors and an unmanageable rise in healthcare demand. Titles and remuneration are different in the two health economies, reflecting the organisation and regulation of nursing. In clinical terms, there are few differences between practice in the two settings and it appears that the distinct systems of regulation have minimal effect on role development. Ophthalmic nursing, as a reactive, needs based profession and in common with nursing in general, evolves in order that practice reflects what is needed by patients and services.


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