Robbie’s Law

Robbie’s Law to give families the right to get the truth about medical negligence

THE family of a Welsh schoolboy who died as a result of medical negligence has been credited with inspiring the UK Government to introduce a duty on healthcare providers to be honest with patients and their families when things go wrong.Patients’ rights campaigners said the so-called Duty of Candour should be known as “Robbie’s Law” in honour of 10-year-old Robbie Powell who was killed in 1990 by a treatable condition that doctors missed.The UK Government this week committed itself to the legal duty in its response to the NHS Future Forum report which sets out how the health service in England will be modernised in the future.

BRICK by BRICK

Maybe, just maybe, justice?

In the distant future?

Website pulls together global information on patient safety, quality care

THANK GOD!

This blog, I guess, is now redundant!

Isn't it?

Robbie’s Law

Robbie’s Law and the Need for a Statutory Duty of Candour - October 14th, 2010

The Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations, which came into force in April 2010, provide for a statutory duty on healthcare providers to report incidents which harm patients to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).

AvMA’s report states that, “everyone needs to understand that it is simply unacceptable to allow dishonesty over medical accidents. Sending the message that cover ups may be tolerated (as the current arrangements do) can in no way support an open and fair culture.”

Legal Duty of Candour - 'Robbie's Law'

PROPOSAL FOR A

LEGAL DUTY OF CANDOUR IN HEALTHCARE

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Oh, isn't it remarkable at how confident we can be with the effectiveness of the self regulation that the medical profession has achieved world wide?

Are patients safer?

Patient group aims to lift veil on medical errors

Each year, medical errors kill almost 24,000 Canadians, yet many patients say they struggle getting hospital staff to admit the mistakes. That why they've formed a new group calling for that to change.

That's nearly one needless death every 20 minutes!


Patients for Patient Safety Canada




Patients for Patient Safety Canada Launches Nationally



An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002

That's nearly one needless death every 3 minutes!

Inquiry may be held into boy's death in 1990

An example of the swift response
to clear up ethical questions dealing with the
MEDICAL PROFESSIONS?

NHS blunder changed organ donors' wishes

Families allowed organs to be donated,
after being given wrong information
on what consent had been given

Makes one feel real comfortable with Ontario's,

Fair Notice

"An important change in how organ and tissue donation decisions are registered in Ontario.

Now, when you register or renew your health card at a ServiceOntario Office, you will be advised that only a “YES” to organ and tissue donation is being collected and stored in the OHIP database.",

doesn't it?


Organ transplants: Relative ethics
Examining the ethics of transplants
21 April 2010

Panel to probe Windsor hospitals

I don't find any comfort in this exercise!
I remember the expressions
Self regulation
Self serving

Are Windsor Hospitals really a perceived aberration, in that they perform less properly than other hospitals in other centers?

Grieving Windsor family seeks answers


Rebecca Walberg on Brian Sinclair's
death in the ER and a
Manitoba Health cover-up
S.O.P.
Medical Profession's
Standard Operating Procedures

Mistaken mastectomy probe

Pathologist suspended while tests reviewed


I wonder if the speed at which recommended safety procedures are being implemented are a good indication of the value that the medical profession's colleges et all places on their patients' well being?

How long have the recommendations for Surgical Checklists been ignored or ridiculed?

Province probes mistaken surgeries
The Ontario government has launched an external review into a number of botched medical procedures

This should give us as much comfort as
"Bill 31, Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004".
We need patient protection.



Fears grip Windsor
in wake of medical mistakes
Is the current system, in practical terms,
self regulating or self serving?

If there is any reason for doubt,
is that the reason we now have fear?

Ontario jumps into health row

Province fights court challenge
from woman used in U.S. ad
assailing Canada's public system


Appropriate communication
with potential patients
can also limit health care expenses‽


Not All
Socialist(?)
Countries are Alike

Ontario is prepared for Swine Flu Threat ! ?

The World Health Organisation has confirmed
that swine flu continues to spread
at a pace of 1000 new infections per day.
Friday, May 22, 2009



I wonder if these perceived threats are helpful?

If an individual misinterprets information, and this will have serious life threatening implications on that individual's health and life, wouldn't an ethical health provider at least make an attempt to ensure that the cause for the misinterpretation was effectively explained?

Is it ethical to repeatedly aggravate, instead of minimizing, the concern?

Is it reasonable to assume that, without an attempt to clear up the cause for the "misinterpretation", there effectively is not any misinterpretation?

The following letters may provide some clarification.

November 9, 2001, letter, Attention: Hospital Chief Executive Office

and

April 14, 2003, letter Attention: The Honourable Tony Clement
Minister of Health (Ontario)



Epidemic and Pandemic Alert
and Response (EPR)

Effective Self Regulation?

Another event, in Wales, disturbingly similar to the previous post.

12 August 2005, An important update!
Parents accept doctor's damages

An article dedicated to a little boy called Robbie Powell. His family's perseverance and dedication throughout their long fight for justice are an inspiration and example to us all.

Doctors have no duty to give, as a result of their negligence, a truthful account of the circumstances of a death, nor even to refrain from deliberately falsifying records?‽
Is this believable?‽
It seemed too farfetched to be believable until I looked at the European Court of Human Rights decision.
"Whilst it was arguable that doctors had a duty not to falsify medical records under the common law (Sir Donaldson MR’s “duty of candour”), before Powell v Boladz there was no binding decision of the courts as to the existence of such a duty. As the law stands now, however, doctors have no duty to give the parents of a child who died as a result of their negligence a truthful account of the circumstances of the death, nor even to refrain from deliberately falsifying records."
The decision can be accessed from this page searching for "decision" and "application no. 45305/99" to see -

DECISION
AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF
Application no. 45305/99
by William and Anita POWELL
against the United Kingdom




A GP who examined a boy hours before he died
of a treatable illness
has denied her judgement was clouded
because she was arguing with his parents.
7 April, 2004

Is this an example of the
acceptable, responsible, self regulation
that we can expect in Ontario?
July 19, 2008


"Written laws are like spider's webs;
they will catch, it is true, the weak and the poor,
but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful."
(Anacharsis--Scythian Philosopher...600 B.C.)