Health Care Policy

LO2 – Legis= lation

We will conclude this Outcome – and this Unit – with a look at three final areas of legislation relevant to Health Care, two of which should already be familia= r to you from the Principles of Practice unit.

Care Practice

There are numerous guidelines for ‘best practice’ with different groups of service users, patients and clients, and you should be familiar with the key princi= ples of good practice from the Principles of Practice unit.

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Working in groups,= recap the 5 principles of good practice and explain what each of them involves.=

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Who might be respo= nsible for drawing up more detailed guidelines for ‘best practice’? Discuss the potential role for each of the following bodies:

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Regulatory bodies
Employers
Health Care professionals
Patients’ groups=
Trade unions and professional associatio= ns
The government (national and local)=

Before the assessmen= t, visit the following website:

www.show.scot.nh= s.uk/nhsgclinicalguidance/

This has been develo= ped by NHS Grampian to offer support to professionals in clinical ‘best practice’ in health care.

How useful do you th= ink this resource is? How might it be applied to other areas?

You can also find be= st practice guidelines for social care here:

www.gscc.co.uk (follow the links for ‘Codes of Practice’).

Data Protection

The principles of da= ta protection and recording of storage of information about individuals should again be familiar to you from the Principles of Practice unit.

As a health care wor= ker, it is also important that you are familiar with the Data Protection Act (1988)= .

The Act covers perso= nal information held about living individuals, including records relating to th= eir physical or mental health, whether these are stored electronically or on pa= per.

Some of the main pri= nciples of the Act include:

Only collecting and storing data where the= re is a valid reason to do so
Sensitive personal information (e.g. health records) can only be stored when the individual concerned has given th= eir explicit consent – although this can be over-ruled in cases where the individual is unable to give consent, e.g. someone who had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act
Personal data must be accurate, up to date= , and relevant to the purpose of the records
Personal data must not be stored for longe= r than necessary for the purpose of the records
Individuals have the right to access recor= ds held about them, including the source of the information held, regardl= ess of when the information was recorded and how it was stored (electronic= ally or paper-based)
Exceptions to this include situations where another person’s confidentiality might be compromised, e.g. information had come from a relative, or where disclosure of informati= on could cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the data subject or another person.
In some situations one person might request information about another – e.g. a parent requesting information about their child. In this situation, disclosure can be refused if the information had been provided on the basis that it would not be disclo= sed.

What would be the implications for…

A mother trying to find out whether her 15= year old daughter had been prescribed the contraceptive pill.

An individual who had previously been sect= ioned under the Mental Health Act trying to access information about NHS rec= ords concerning their mental health condition/history and treatment.

Mental Health Car= e (Scotland) Act 2003

The Mental Health Ca= re (Scotland) Act 2003 builds upon earlier legislation in this area such as the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act, which introduced wide-ranging reforms for individuals w= ith mental ill health.

The 2003 Act seeks t= o extend the rights of those experiencing mental ill health who are ‘sectioned’, where medical professionals decide that the person= is a risk either to themselves or to others, and thus must receive compulsory hospital treatment. Some of these rights also extend to family members and carers of those receiving treatment, where the individual is unable to act = on their own behalf, and make it easier for individuals to appeal against their hospitalisation and treatment.

The Act creates a ne= w Mental Health Tribunal to deal with cases where care professionals and individuals receiving care disagree on treatment. The Tribunal has the power to change = the management of patients receiving compulsory treatment and to overrule a restriction order or ‘section’.

A summary of the Act= is attached, a full overview (42 pages) can be downloaded from:

http:/= /www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/11/18547/29201=

Questions

In what circumstances can an individual be detained in hospital under the Act?

How do the Act and the ‘Millan principles’ on which it is based fit with the principles of Care= Practice outlined earlier?