23
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found

      Medical regulation, spectacular transparency and the blame business

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisher
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Purpose

          The purpose of this paper is to explore general practitioners' GPs' and psychiatrists' views and experiences of transparent forms of medical regulation in practice, as well as those of medical regulators and those representing patients and professionals.

          Designmethodologyapproach

          The research included interviews with GPs, psychiatrists and others involved in medical regulation, representing patients and professionals. A qualitative narrative analysis of the interviews was then conducted.

          Findings

          Narratives suggest rising levels of complaints, legalisation and blame within the National Health Service NHS. Three key themes emerge. First, doctors feel guilty until proven innocent within increasingly legalised regulatory systems and are consequently practising more defensively. Second, regulation is described as providing spectacular transparency, driven by political responses to high profile scandals rather than its effects in practice, which can be seen as a social defence. Finally, it is suggested that a blame business is driving this form of transparency, in which selfinterested regulators, the media, lawyers, and even some patient organisations are fuelling transparency in a wider culture of blame.

          Research limitationsimplications

          A relatively small number of people were interviewed, so further research testing the findings would be useful.

          Practical implications

          Transparency has some perverse effects on doctors' practice.

          Social implications

          Rising levels of blame has perverse consequences for patient care, as doctors are practicing more defensively as a result, as well as significant financial implications for NHS funding.

          Originalityvalue

          Transparent forms of regulation are assumed to be beneficial and yet little research has examined its effects in practice. In this paper we highlight a number of perverse effects of transparency in practice.

          Related collections

          Most cited references15

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          The Tyranny of Transparency

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            The Risk Game and the Blame Game

            Economists Say There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The burgeoning ‘risk industry’ – no doubt set for further expansion after the terrorist attacks on US heartlands in 2001 – says there is no such thing as a risk-free lunch. Anthropologists say there is no such thing as a blame-free risk. And political scientists know blame is central to politics.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              A Narratological Approach to Understanding Processes of Organizing in a UK Hospital

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                jhom
                10.1108/jhom
                Journal of Health Organization and Management
                Emerald Publishing
                1477-7266
                02 November 2010
                : 24
                Issue : 6 Issue title : Modernising medical regulation where are we now Issue title : Modernising medical regulation
                : 597-610
                Affiliations
                Universities of Leicester, Nottingham and Leeds, respectively
                The Department of Management, King's College London, London, UK
                The Department of Management, King's College London, London, UK
                Article
                0250240605.pdf 0250240605
                10.1108/14777261011088683
                fa1120f6-ce6e-4dd4-8647-6bfc936ec765
                © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
                History
                Categories
                research-article, Research paper
                cat-HSC, Health & social care
                cat-HMAN, Healthcare management
                Custom metadata
                no
                yes
                included

                Health & Social care
                Regulation,Medical sciences,Management accountability,Risk management,Legislation,Complaints

                Comments

                Comment on this article