Who should the law hold to account for poor healthcare provision and standards? Should only patients who are physically injured receive compensation? Is compensation what injured patients and their families want when healthcare goes wrong? What should the standard for consent to treatment be in healthcare law and should this be different for different patients depending on their illness(es) or cognitive abilities? You will consider all these fascinating questions and more.
Healthcare provision is a complex and risky, yet crucially important societal endeavour. We are all reliant on healthcare provision to lead a decent life. Healthcare provision and the legal concepts underpinning its regulation are routinely challenged by changing professional practice, new scientific developments and shifts in patient values and health needs. You will learn about the impact of these shifts and challenges on the legal regulation of healthcare provision in the UK's NHS through the lens of key issues such as access to healthcare, regulation of clinical negligence, patient consent to/refusal of treatment and patient capacity to make healthcare decisions. You will also learn about the law’s role in underpinning and/or resisting societal inequalities concerning healthcare provision. You will analyse contemporary legal issues and challenges in healthcare practice through a series of weekly case studies, selected to showcase different theoretical perspectives and promote your critical thinking.
Lecture/Seminars 16
Workshop 8
Written- Extended Writing -Short Essay -1000 words - 20%
Written -Extended Writing- Extended Essay -3000 words- 80%
Reassessment methods: Like-for-like
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1) Comprehensively identify and explain a range of contemporary legal issues about healthcare practice and the broad political contexts that impact them.
2) Apply independence of mind in undertaking legal research and critically engage with advanced scholarship and debate on current legal and regulatory problems and challenges in healthcare practice.
3) Appraise complex issues systematically and creatively, from a range of different theoretical perspectives, and using various disciplinary approaches.
4) Formulate and expertly communicate reasoned, critical and persuasive arguments as to the application of law and regulation to current problems and challenges in healthcare practice.
5) Critically evaluate received understanding and wider political and policy debates about legal approaches to regulating healthcare practice.
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