Category: International

The State of Care in Mental Health Services in England 2014-2017

John Tingle Leave a comment

By John Tingle

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. They have recently published a report of inspections on specialist mental health services. The  report is very thorough and detailed and reveals both good and bad practices. When reading the report however the poor practices identified eclipse the good ones.

Patient safety concerns

Concerns about patient safety are a constant and overarching theme in the report. The CQC biggest concern in this care area is patient safety:

“For both NHS and independent mental health services overall, and for eight of the 11 core services, safe was the key question that we most often rated as requires improvement or inadequate. At 31 May 2017, 36% of NHS core services and 34% of independent core services were rated as requires improvement for safe; a further 4% of NHS core services and 5% of independent core services were rated as inadequate for safe “(29).

Read More

The Rising Cost of Clinical Negligence: Who Pays the Price?

John Tingle Leave a comment

By John Tingle

The Medical Protection Society (MPS) have recently published a report arguing that the rising costs of clinical negligence needs to be urgently controlled. They state that the NHS is struggling under the increasing burden of clinical negligence costs and suggest some reforms.The report is detailed and thorough and raises some good and interesting points but in reading it, it should be remembered that there is also a very good contrary position that can be advanced by those who act for patients in clinical negligence litigation. This report puts the issues to test.

The Report

The report begins by looking at the increasing costs of clinical negligence claims. Costs have increased over the years and the figures are stark. The report quotes figures from NHS Resolution, the new name for the NHS LA (National Health Service Litigation Authority) who estimates that the provision for future clinical negligence costs, relating to claims arising from incidents that have already occurred, stands at £56.1 billion:

“Expenditure on clinical claims by NHS Resolution increased by 72% (11.5% a year on average) over the five years to 2015/16. Should this trend continue it risks becoming wholly unsustainable for the NHS and wider society, which ultimately pays for these cost. Last year alone, nearly £1.5billion was spent and, put into context, this equates to the cost of training over 6,500 new doctors.(p4).” Read More

How should we organize consent to research biobanking in the hospital?

Genetics in Medicine 6 Comments

By Alena Buyx, MD PhD

Ever wondered what happens to the biological material you leave behind when you check out of the hospital? Nothing much, is the usual answer. However, the little bits of blood, tissue, and urine are potentially valuable for medical research; miniscule amounts of it may already allow sophisticated analyses, including genetic ones. Thus, in an approach termed ‘healthcare-embedded biobanking’, healthcare providers have started collections of leftover patient materials to create resources for future research.

However, unlike traditional research, healthcare-embedded biobanking is not done with a clear research question in mind. The materials are simply left-overs from diagnosis or treatment and, at the time of collection, the scientific projects for which they may be used eventually are entirely unclear.

This approach leads to an ethical conundrum. Established research ethics frameworks found here and here require that patients be asked for their consent and that they are given  all the information they need to make an informed decision about whether to donate their material (and its associated data) or not.  This includes, in particular, the research goals as well as the potential benefits and risks. However, this provision of information is not possible in healthcare-embedded biobanking: the risks and benefits can only be described in very broad terms, and the goals and timing of future research are usually unknown. Indeed, the materials may even not be used at all. Read More

Making Health Care Safer: What Good Looks Like

John Tingle Leave a comment

It’s fair to say that patient safety and health quality reports in recent years have tended to focus on what is going wrong in the NHS and what needs to be done to put things right.We have had some dramatic health care systems failures which have resulted in unnecessary deaths of patients.The naming and shaming of errant health care providers has taken place and we have now through the CQC (Care Quality Commission), a much more open, stronger, intelligent and transparent way of regulating health care quality than we have ever had before.

The health care regulatory system does seem to be making a positive difference to NHS care judging from recent CQC reports with some good examples of health quality and safe care practices taking place. Other trusts can learn from these practices.

The CQC have just published a report which includes several case studies illustrating some of the qualities shown by care providers that are rated good or outstanding overall. These hospitals known as hospital trusts in the NHS have been on a journey of improvement some going from special measures to good (CQC inspection ratings). The views of some of the people involved in the care improvement initiatives are stated in the case studies revealing important insights on improvement strategies and the nature of the problems overcome. Read More

Webinar, 6/28: Procedural Aspects of Compulsory Licensing under TRIPS

Timo Minssen Leave a comment

Join us at yet another webinar with J. Wested at the University of Copenhagen. This time we will debate procedural issues in compulsory licensing with H. Grosse Ruse-Kahn (University of Cambridge) & M. Desai (Eli Lilly). Further information on our webinar series is available at here, here, and below:

Procedural Aspects of Compulsory Licensing under Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

Wednesday 28. June 2017
4-6 p.m (CEST)
Sign-up & questions: Jakob.blak.wested@jur.ku.dk

This webinar on “TRIPS and the life sciences” will approach the question of compulsory licensing by looking at the technical and procedural requirements applied by courts when evaluating a petition for a compulsory license.  

The balancing of the instrumental application of patent rights as a stimulator of innovation and the public interest in having access to these innovations form a controversial trajectory of discourse, which is as old as patent law. Compulsory licenses are one of the means that have been applied throughout the history of patent law, to condition this complex intersection of interests. The TRIPS agreement is no exception and art 31 contains the provision for member states to grant CL. In 2013, the Indian authorities granted a compulsory license to NATCO Pharmaceuticals for Bayers patented pharmaceutical product Carboxy Substituted Diphenyl Ureas, useful for the treatment of liver and kidney cancer. This decision raised several issues regarding the procedures and requirements to be met in order to grant a compulsory license. Furthermore, in January 2017 an amendment to TRIPS agreement entered into force allowing compulsory licensors to export their generic pharmaceuticals to least developed countries, further recalibrating the intersection of the monopoly power of the patent and public interest. Read More

WHO: Global Patient Safety Leadership

John Tingle Leave a comment

By John Tingle

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just produced a very informative and helpful report on the need to view patient safety as a global concern and to highlight resources that they have made available to deal with the problem and those in development. Patient safety is a fundamental principle of health care and this is fully acknowledged in the report. The report begins by quoting several facts and figures which emphasize the fact that medical errors should be regarded as a matter of acute global concern:

“According to a new study, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. In the United Kingdom, recent estimations show that on average, one incident of patient harm is reported every 35 seconds. Similarly, in low- and middle income countries, a combination of numerous unfavourable factors such as understaffing, inadequate structures and overcrowding, lack of health care commodities and shortage of basic equipment, and poor hygiene and sanitation, contribute to unsafe patient care (p1).”

Approximately two-thirds of all adverse health events happen in low-and middle-income countries. Fifteen per cent of hospital expenditure in Europe can be attributed to treating patient safety accidents. Read More

The Global Virome Project: Understanding Our Viral Enemies to Create a Safer World

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

We are pleased to present this symposium featuring commentary from participants in the “Between Complacency and Panic: Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases” conference held on April 14, 2017, at Northeastern University School of Law. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Health Policy and Law and the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), with support from The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. 

By Ana S. Ayala

There is no doubt that viruses, emerging and re-emerging, have become an imminent global health threat. Starting in 2014, we saw the decimation of West African countries as a result of the Ebola epidemic. Soon after came the Zika outbreak that continues to pose a threat to countries in the Americas and around the world. Since December 2016, Brazil has been experiencing a rise in yellow fever cases , and deaths, among humans and monkeys alike. Colombia and Peru have already reported probable cases. As a response to rising human cases of the H7N9 bird flu, China just ordered the closure of all poultry markets in the eastern province of Zhejiang to stop the trade of live poultry.

Experts warn that the question is not whether but when a pandemic will hit. Unknown or little-known viruses currently looming in animal populations undetected pose a especially dangerous risk–we have little to no experience with them, we do not know whether or when they will spill over to humans, and we do not know where they will emerge next. Read More

Emergency Preparedness: Is Quarantine All We Have to Offer?

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

We are pleased to present this symposium featuring commentary from participants in the “Between Complacency and Panic: Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases” conference held on April 14, 2017, at Northeastern University School of Law. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Health Policy and Law and the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), with support from The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Stay tuned for more posts!

By Wendy K. Mariner

On August 1, 2014, while Ebola raged in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Donald Trump tweeted: “The U.S. cannot allow Ebola infected people back! People that go to faraway places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences.”  Most experts agree that epidemics are best avoided where the population is educated, well-nourished, and resilient, with access to effective medical and public health resources. Yet, too often, the first response to the threat of an epidemic is to keep people out of the country or quarantine them. It is worth considering why this is so, and how we can do better.

A New Foreign and Interstate Quarantine Rule

On January 19, 2017, the day before Trump’s inauguration as President, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued final regulations for detaining individuals suspected of harboring a “quarantinable” communicable disease (QCD). Why would the Obama Administration issue new rules? The explanation in the Federal Register offers 2 reasons: (1) responding to the Ebola epidemic and outbreaks like MERS and measles; and (2) clarifying and codifying “current practice” “to make the public aware of their use.” Read More

When a Nurse Needs an Attorney: US Quarantine Policy

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff 1 Comment

We are pleased to present this symposium featuring commentary from participants in the “Between Complacency and Panic: Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases” conference held on April 14, 2017, at Northeastern University School of Law. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Health Policy and Law and the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), with support from The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Stay tuned for more posts!

By Kaci Hickox, MPH, MSN, RN

As new cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are announced, I am reminded of the importance of applying lessons learned from U.S. quarantine policies during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. I watched the suffering of entire families and communities facing the largest Ebola outbreak in history. During my Ebola training in Brussels, I will never forget hearing an Ebola expert explain, “Remember to have compassion because this disease turns peoples’ loved ones into a biological hazard.” I remember the moment I understood Ebola with my heart, not merely my head, when a young woman admitted to the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Ebola Treatment Unit in Bo, Sierra Leone, explained, “Nineteen of my family members have died of Ebola.”

Yet, in the midst of extreme fear and suffering, I also witnessed the profound courage of the staff responding to stop the outbreak. On my last day in the unit we had celebrated the discharge of 39 Ebola survivors. Offering isolation, testing, and treatment for persons who developed symptoms of Ebola was necessary to stop disease transmission and finally, after two years of response, the outbreak was declared over in December 2015! In this globalized world, we must be prepared to react not only to Ebola, but to any infectious disease threat with courage instead of fear, science instead of politics.

How do we ensure courageous responses to infectious disease threats? Read More

New Blog Symposium: Between Complacency and Panic – Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases

wparmet Leave a comment

We are pleased to present this symposium featuring commentary from participants in the “Between Complacency and Panic: Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases” conference held on April 14, 2017, at Northeastern University School of Law. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Health Policy and Law and the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), with support from The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Stay tuned for more posts!

By Wendy E. Parmet and Jennifer L. Huer

Public health is often invisible. In contrast to health services, public health interventions usually operate behind the scenes, reducing risks to broad populations. No one can say who was saved, what deaths were prevented.

For public health, this invisibility presents political and budgetary challenges. Without clear beneficiaries, public health has lacked the political support and dollars allocated to health services. This challenge may be even more formidable today as the Trump Administration seeks enormous cuts to public health programs, while questioning settled public health science.

In the face of such challenges, it may be tempting for public health advocates to emphasize the dangers of emerging infectious diseases. Over the last forty years, a multitude of new or previously tamed infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and Zika have emerged, wrecking morbidity and mortality, and causing panic around the globe. During these outbreaks, public health’s importance becomes, at least briefly, all-too-apparent. Read More