Who should we blame for healthcare failings? Lessons from the French tainted blood scandal
Who should we blame for healthcare failings? Lessons from the French tainted blood scandal
Many well-known cases of ‘medical manslaughter’ have shown that systemic issues play a significant role in contributing to fatal errors in healthcare institutions. The most prominent NHS scandal, Mid Staffordshire, demonstrated that wrongful prioritization of resources and shortage of staff had contributed to the death of between 400 to 1200 patients due to appalling care by nursing staff and doctors between 2005 and 2009. Following the scandal, the Trust was prosecuted and convicted of a criminal offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in 2014 and 2015. In contrast, in a scandal of comparable scale across the Channel, ‘the HIV-contaminated blood scandal’, individual decision-makers were subject to criminal convictions. Learning from features of the French criminal process, and the aftermath of the 1980s French tainted blood scandal, this article argues that the criminal process can only be a useful response to healthcare systemic failings if higher-level decision-makers are also included in the scope of criminal liability when they have recklessly endangered patients. When no individual reckless fault is found on the part of decision-makers, corporate criminal liability is a suitable alternative to individual criminal liability, if it is focused on ensuring safety and offering justice to patients who have been harmed as a result of healthcare systemic failings.
Criminal Liability, Healthcare Scandals, Ill-treatment, Manslaughter, Systemic Failings, Wilful Neglect
390-405
Kazarian, Melinee
275d8dcd-19af-4530-9d99-6187819c6dcf
June 2019
Kazarian, Melinee
275d8dcd-19af-4530-9d99-6187819c6dcf
Kazarian, Melinee
(2019)
Who should we blame for healthcare failings? Lessons from the French tainted blood scandal.
Medical Law Review, 27 (3), .
(doi:10.1093/medlaw/fwz004).
Abstract
Many well-known cases of ‘medical manslaughter’ have shown that systemic issues play a significant role in contributing to fatal errors in healthcare institutions. The most prominent NHS scandal, Mid Staffordshire, demonstrated that wrongful prioritization of resources and shortage of staff had contributed to the death of between 400 to 1200 patients due to appalling care by nursing staff and doctors between 2005 and 2009. Following the scandal, the Trust was prosecuted and convicted of a criminal offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in 2014 and 2015. In contrast, in a scandal of comparable scale across the Channel, ‘the HIV-contaminated blood scandal’, individual decision-makers were subject to criminal convictions. Learning from features of the French criminal process, and the aftermath of the 1980s French tainted blood scandal, this article argues that the criminal process can only be a useful response to healthcare systemic failings if higher-level decision-makers are also included in the scope of criminal liability when they have recklessly endangered patients. When no individual reckless fault is found on the part of decision-makers, corporate criminal liability is a suitable alternative to individual criminal liability, if it is focused on ensuring safety and offering justice to patients who have been harmed as a result of healthcare systemic failings.
Text
Pure Healthcare Failings Medical Law Review
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 1 February 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 March 2019
Published date: June 2019
Keywords:
Criminal Liability, Healthcare Scandals, Ill-treatment, Manslaughter, Systemic Failings, Wilful Neglect
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 428214
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/428214
ISSN: 0967-0742
PURE UUID: 93799167-8094-44b2-8ea7-c779c9de98db
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Date deposited: 15 Feb 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:34
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