Never has the saying “necessity is the mother of all invention” been truer than what we see today in the unprecedented times in which we find ourselves, not least in the provision of healthcare both in secondary and primary care.
Please note: the information contained in this legal update is correct as of the original date of publication.
Never has the saying “necessity is the mother of all invention” been truer than what we see today in the unprecedented times in which we find ourselves, not least in the provision of healthcare both in secondary and primary care. At a time of global pandemic when the challenges we face are vast yet the need to keep society running are as prescient as ever, the need has been to deliver the best quality healthcare possible, minimising contact, while we have been in lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in the way patients engage with and are seen by their doctors and health care providers, and the interesting point is that these changes appear to have moved the boundaries and definitions of what good medical care means and many suspect will not be changed in the future. What has been welcomed is the speed by which technology has been adopted.
Such as the role of women in WW1 eventually leading to female enfranchisement in 1919; the adoption of technology in healthcare; the use of telephone and video consultations and the widespread adoption of clinicians working from home will, it is fully expected, be here to stay. Rather than providing a lower standard of care to the patient, many clinicians are hearing that patients like the telephone contact; that it is no longer necessary to take a morning off work and attend a GP surgery is a positive thing; that the service is convenient. We hear that E-referrals to dermatology when a picture of the lesion for example is being sent directly to a specialist is speeding up the referral process.
Clinicians are realising, like many of us are, that working from home, rather than causing problems is freeing up time to get on and spend time on the patients who need it when examinations are required. Of course; this is dependent on good broadband coverage and the users being able to access and/or use IT to good effect. One GP reports that a patient did not realise she needed to unmute the microphone during the consultation so he could hear what she was saying!
Of course, not all changes will be irreversible; the current sign off of cremation certificates requiring only one GP will not stay; anyone aware of the consequences of Dr Shipman will know that the safety net of two GPs signing off on a death must be reintroduced as soon as possible.
But the embracing of technology means a real paradigm shift has taken place due to COVID-19 and we expect that the norms of medical practice; the realisation that other forms of online consultation and therapy can take place (such as remote physiotherapy etc) will be embraced. As more clinicians and patients become familiar with this technology; the likelier we are to use this more and more.
As ever the legal and regulatory framework will take time to catch up to these changes but what is clear is that COVID-19 has produced change that none of us thought we would ever see because it was required and maybe society will not be worse off for it. But just as important will be that in the future, when considering the merits of a claim for clinical negligence and what was Bolam-reasonable; we will need to be clear as to when the alleged negligence happened and what the impact of the COVID–19 measures were and when they took effect; it will be too easy in hindsight to forget that practice was significantly different before the pandemic and possibly afterwards too.
The BMA is advising all NHS / HSCNI consultants to ensure extra-contractual work is paid at the BMA minimum recommended rate and to decline offers of extra-contractual work that doesn't value them appropriately.
NHS England has published (October 2022) new guidance - Assuring and supporting complex change: Statutory transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.
NHS England has issued an updated (publication 11 October 2022) suite of Complex Change guidance about how it will assure and support proposals for complex change that are reportable to it. New and (where it is still in force) existing Complex Change guidance are as follows.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
It is clear that the digital landscape, often termed cyberspace, is a man-made environment, in which human behaviour dominates and where technology both influences and aids our role in it — through the internet, telecoms and networked computer systems, which are often interdependent. The extent to which any organisation is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack depends on how well these elements are aligned.
In Mogane v Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered whether it was fair to dismiss a nurse as redundant on the basis that that her fixed-term contract was due to expire before that of her colleague.
Three months on from the commencement of the new statutory Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Anja Beriro and Gerrard Hanratty reflect on the main themes and issues that have come from the new relationship between local government and health.
The majority of people do not feel the need to embellish their CV to get that coveted position and move on up the career ladder. Their worthiness and benefit to the hiring organisation are easily demonstrated through the recruitment process – application, psychometric testing, selection day or interview.
On Saturday 15 October a wave of light swept the internet when thousands of people flooded social media with pictures of candles to remember the babies that they have lost. This event signifies the end of Baby Loss Awareness Week which aims to break the silence that is associated with baby loss in pregnancy and infancy.
The Coronavirus Act 2020 allowed any registered medical practitioner to sign a medical certificate of cause of death (“MCCD”), even if the deceased was not attended to during his or her last illness and not seen after death, provided that the medical practitioner could state the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief.
