Legal and Ethical Issues-Accountability in Health and Social Care
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This essay covers different aspects of accountability in health and social care, its legal provisions, and various ethical principles applicable to medical practitioners. It also analyzes the importance of accurate record-keeping.
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Legal and Ethical Issues-Accountability
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3 TASK..............................................................................................................................................4 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................7 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION Accountabilitysimplymeansresponsibletosomeone.Thehealthandsocialcare professionals are held accountable for their action and obliged to perform their duty.Care workers are not only accountable to their regulatory bodies but also their clients, employers, colleagues and themselves. Accountability allows them to maintain proper records and work safely. In the year 2013, Francis report was published and has identified five essential themes to providefundamentalrulesandnursingstandardstodevelopculturalhealthsystemand coordinate heath care for patients. The recent amendment in the English National Health Service (NHS)hasestablishedtheaccountabilitysystemforhealthcareservices.Healthcare professional are basically the qualified health professionals whichplays significant role in promoting health sector and deliver the best services to their clients. According to Health and Social Care Act, 2013, considerable effort has been made to provide NHS legislation to widened up the accountability framework tofollow the ethical and legal standardsin social and health care sector (Ballantyne, 2019). The health care professional are legally and ethically responsible to protect their patient and exercised their code of ethics as a profession for which they are assumed to adhere. They are not only answerable to other's action but also for one's own action. This essay will cover the different aspect of accountability in health and social care, its different legal previsions and various ethical principles that are applicable on medical practitioners. Further, it will analyse the importance of accurate record keeping. TASK According to theProfessor Sir Michael Marmot(Health Equity in England:The Marmot Review 10 Years On, 2020), health inequalities was largely observed which enhancedthe worries of the UK government and leads to 'unjust and unnecessary' treatment with patients. The UK has observed the slow rise in life expectancy of population especially women, forced the government to take necessary measure to legally recognise the rights of the patients. The major changes has been adopted after the implementationof NHS reform in the year 2013 that has increased the different approaches of accountability and achieved the greater control over the healthcarepractitioners(EllisandEllis,2021). Theprofessionalaccountabilityprovides guidance to social and health care workers on how to manage and maintain the proper records of
all their actions. Accountability has different meaning in health, law and ethics. It is an essential element to maintain relationship between client and health professional. It helps to secure the interest of their clients and able to justify their action by legally and ethically exercising their professional duties. However, it complies with privacy laws and ethical codes of conduct to maintain the client's confidentiality and safety (Bowman, Huxtable, Razai and Gallagher, 2021). For clients, accountability usually means identifying the better treatment plan and meditational procedure to cure the disease. It influence the mental and physical health and encourage the patient to participate in their treatment under the best health professionals. Accountability is complex procedure and covers all the aspects of health care systemincluding government policies , training programs, counselling procedure etc. If an of the health professionals and employers is failed to comply with their ethical and legal duties, then they are accountable for his action to the authoritiesand will be penalised for their derogatory action.It ensure meaningful efforts and collective engagement with the government to bring more accessible and better healthcare system in the society. The Francis Inquiry plays crucial role in identifying all the barriers that were faced by the UK health care system and address the some of the vital issues related to lack of legislation that are able to improve public confidence. The UK Law commission has reviewed the issues and made key changes in regulatory model to ensure public protection and promote safety, health and care of the general public. It is a legal obligation over the medical professional to provide clear justificationto the interested parties or clients for their action. In relation to health and care sector, it involves following aspects which means individual professional is responsible for his own act (Kaur and Lodhia, 2019). As an employer, they are responsible for the work they done within anorganisationand accountabilityin respectto other'sinvolvesthe conductand behaviour towards colleagues and other staff members. The health and Social Care Act of 2012 introduced the separate legal entity which is known as NHS Trust Development Authority. This authority is responsible to laid down the duty to promote apprehensionof heath service and mandate the accountability to patient and, public, employer and other statutory regulatory bodies. The Health and Well being Boards has been established to promote integrated health system and increase accountability in order to legally and ethically recognise their duties towards the society (Stuteville, 2022). WHO plays significant role in reducing health inequalities and foster the health equity commitments.
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Accountability has positive impact on the economy secure the human right of the individual. It is based on different approaches which includes human right, non discrimination, transparency and guide the service provider to act in such manner. Accountability cover wide range of definition and it is required at various levels which includes judicial accountability through international court, Quasi judicial accountability through enforcement of International human right body (Montreuil, Martineau and Racine, 2019). However, Caulfield has been introducedthefour pillarsof accountabilityinthe year2001. In which, first pillarof accountabilityisconsideredasprofessionalaccountabilitywhichisfundamentaldutyof professional practitioner to secure the interest of patient. Whereas second pillar of accountability is dealing with ethical accountability as practitioner are obliged to act in fair and reasonable manner to cure the disease. The fourth pillar of accountability is employment accountability as the employees are responsible at workplace for whatever the act they are doing within the organisation. Therefore, the NMC( Nursing & Midwifery Council) identified the professional accountability as the integral part of ascertaining the professional knowledge and skill to deal with variety of circumstances that may arise at professional workplace. The legislative body has been made to impose the duty on the medical practitioner to exercise their ethical duty towards their patients to ensure their safety and care according to Code of Professional Conduct. The health service provider are accountable to enforcement bodies such as civil and criminal court to meet their legal requirements. However, the employees are accountable to their employer to follow the assigned duties whereas registered practitioners are accountable to regulatory bodies such as NHS to comply with terms and standards of practice and treating patients. Accountability and delegation of power is done to secure the right of the patient and save their time or money. Accountability has allows each registered professionals to perform their duties and justify their action to the respective authorities if not, penalise in case of breach. If there employee does any misconduct then employer is authorised to enforce the contract law and can make liable for breach of duty. Accountability covers core areas of health sector and clearly define the roles and responsibilities to effectively review the working system of health and safety care. It promotes better communication, enhance the professional skill, ensure safety and security, respect the dignity and integrity of the patient (Mekonnen, 2018). There are certain legal and ethical principlesthataremadetoexerciseeffectivedecisioninrelationtoclinicalskillsand
professional practitioners. The first and most crucial principle isautonomywhich means every individual is free to make their own judgements. The another ethical principle is dealing with the Beneficence,it means care must be ensure to the patient and avoid the risk of any harm. The third and one of the most ethical responsibility of medical practitioner isNon- Maleficence, exercise their duties for the betterment of their client. The fourth and last ethical principle is dealing withjusticewhich means equal ,fair and reasonable care must be ensured to the patient to prevent them form disease (Peate, 2019). In order to implement these principles , it is important for the legal practitioner is to serve the best effort for the beneficial of their patient and minimise the error while exercising their legal and ethical duties. These principles further includes various aspect such consent and proper communication among the patient and medical practitioner to understand their problems and diagnose them properly to avoid any kind of harm to their body or health. The staff members of the NHS has a legal duty to maintain the confidentiality of information shared by the patient from the medical practitioners. The Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act of 1991 enables the parents to give their consent on behalf of their child if they are below 16 years. The NMC Code of 2008 has guided the professional partitioner through training and various development programme to gain clinical knowledge and medical practice to make effective treatment of their patients. 2. The record keeping is important for gathering vital information and statistical data to make effectivemanagementof thehealthcaresystem(Pilcher,2018). It promotescustomised accounting system to maintain all the records of the patient and medication to demonstrate various aspect of various areas of health system. It is a backbone of UK health care system as it helps to ascertain the financial estimation to provide effective medical assistance to the patient. Accurate accountancy encourage the systematic organisation of work and avoid or money of the people. It a fundamental aspect that helps in making effective decisions to sustain growth and developmentofheathsector.Accountinghelpstomaintainlegaldocumentswhichare admissible in court and important for medical administration. Accountability reduce the chances of uncertainty and clinical negligence that were continuously rising earlier (Ruane, 2019). The NMC provides the guidance for accurate records of all the information that are important to maintain professional accountability in order to preserve the trust and right of the patient.
CONCLUSION From this above report, it has been concluded that medical professional are bound to comply with the code of professional conduct to secure the right of the patient. The accounting help the professionals to govern the activities and answer the authorities that are actually responsible to regulate the health activities. Accounting is a complex process and covers wide areas of practice in health sector. The medical professional are comply to follow the legal and ethical principles to fairly treat their patient. The legislative framework has been made to avoid risk in health sector and encourage the professionals to maintain the standards while making treatment of their patient. The health service provider is answerable to their action for oneself and also towards others. However, the concept of accounting is varied and unique. It ensure effectivemechanismtoadministertheworkandactivitiesperformedbythevarious professionals.
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REFERENCES Books and Journals Ballantyne, A., 2019. Adjusting the focus: a public health ethics approach to data research.Bioethics,33(3), pp.357-366. Bowman, D., Huxtable, R., Razai, M. and Gallagher, A., 2021. Towards ethical preparedness: Regulators’responsestoethicalissuesduringtheCOVID-19pandemic.Nursing ethics,28(6), pp.837-839. Ellis, P. and Ellis, H., 2021. Ethical and legal concepts: responsibility, accountability and liability.Journal of Kidney Care,6(5), pp.239-242. Enombu, J.A. and Adhikari, P., 2022. Clinicians’ informal acquisition of accounting literacy in UK clinical commissioning groups.Public Money & Management, pp.1-7. Fortunato, A., Grainger, D.W. and Abou-El-Enein, M., 2018. Enhancing patient-level clinical dataaccesstopromoteevidence-basedpracticeandincentivizetherapeutic innovation.Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews,136, pp.97-104. Kaur, A. and Lodhia, S.K., 2019. Sustainability accounting, accountability and reporting in the public sector: An overview and suggestions for future research.Meditari Accountancy Research. Mekonnen, D.R., 2018. The Principle of Complementarity and the Challenge of Ensuring Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity in Eritrea.Available at SSRN 3209946. Montreuil, M., Martineau, J.T. and Racine, E., 2019. Exploring ethical issues related to patient engagement in healthcare: Patient, clinician and researcher’s perspectives.Journal of bioethical inquiry,16(2), pp.237-248. Peate, I., 2019. NHS screening programmes.British Journal of Healthcare Assistants,13(8), pp.378-381. Pilcher, R., 2018. Conclusion and globalisingaccounting,accountabilityand governance. InPublic Sector Accounting, Accountability and Governance(pp. 143-157). Routledge. Ruane, S., 2019. Access to data and NHS privatisation: reducing public accountability. InData in Society(pp. 171-182). Policy Press. Smitherman Jr, H.C., Baker, R.S. and Wilson, M.R., 2019. Socially accountable academic health centers: pursuing a quadripartite mission.Academic Medicine,94(2), pp.176-181. Stuteville, R., 2022. Competing Accountability Frameworks and the Role of Interdisciplinary Practice for Publicly Funded Scientists and Scientists within Government.Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal,105(1), pp.84-107. Zimmerman, D.H., 2019. Record-keeping and the intake process in a public welfare agency. InOn record(pp. 289-321). Routledge. Online Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On, 2020[Online] Available through:<https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/the-marmot-review-10-years-on> NHS