Hi guys,
Hope you're all good. I am trying to work through the timeline task so that we have some info to work with at tomorrows meeting - must admit I have hit a bit of a wall with a couple remaining still to look at. I wanted to share what I had done as hopefully it is of some use for our meeting tomorrow! Any: criticisms; corrections; further info; tips and help are gratefully received!
See you all tomorrow :)
1984 Data Protection Act
“An act to regulate the use of automatically
processed information relating to individuals and the provision of services in
respect of such information” (www.legislation.gov.uk, unknown).
This
act was revised in 1998 that resulted in the NHS having to provide their patients
with information held about them.
1985 Local Government
(Access to Information) Act
“An act to provide
greater public access to local authority meetings, reports and documents subject
to specified confidentiality provisions; to give local authorities duties to
publish certain information and for related purposes” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
Within the NHS this should be known so that appropriate notes can be
taken and then written so that the information is accessible when or requested. Before this law access didn’t have to be
given to the public.
1987 Access to Personal
Files Act
“An
Act to provide access for individuals to information relating to themselves
maintained by certain authorities and to allow individuals to obtain copies of,
and require amendment of, such information” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
This
has resulted an NHS patients being able to request files that contain
information about themselves and if necessary having someone explain the
meaning to them. Previously this content
would not have been made available. If
information was contained regarding another party this would have to be removed
or blanked out.
1988 Access to Medical
Records Act
“An Act to establish a right of access by individuals to
reports relating to themselves provided by medical practitioners for employment
or insurance purposes and to make provision for related matters” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
If your patient was looking to take out insurance, or a new
employment appointment, then a third party company may request a copy of records. Consent from the patient should be given in order
to disclose the information. Previously
this content would not have been made available.
1988 Environment and
Safety Information Act
“An Act to establish public registers of certain
notices served concerning health, safety and environmental protection; and for
related purposes” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
This act resulted in all
NHS workers taking responsibility to prevent injury and accidents. An on-site and of-site emergency plan should
be in place and this information should be given to visitors, without them
having to request it. These plans should
undergo reviews and testing. We should
be conscientious of these actions and relaying information when meeting with
patients.
1988 Land Registration
Act
“An Act to amend section 112 of the Land
Registration Act 1925, and for connected purposes” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
The original 1925 act is described as:
“An Act to consolidate the Land Transfer Acts and
the statute law relating to registered land” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
As NHS staff we would have to be aware of these
types of requests and direct them to the relevant person.
1989 Official Secrets
Act
“An Act to replace section 2 of the Official
Secrets Act 1911 by provisions protecting more limited classes of official
information.” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
This law essentially means that anyone who comes
across information that could be seen to be useful by enemies of the state must
not pass this information on. As an NHS
worker you could directly treat a VIP as a patient and therefore have knowledge
of weakness of an important figure that could not be disclosed. You may also acquire information that relates
to specific vaccination stocks or a lack in treatment or research for a
specific area. This information could
not be passed onto any third party for threat of chemical weapons. Although staff would always be covered by
patient confidentiality they may want to talk about a specifically “special”
patient and would not realise perhaps where this information could go.
1990 Access to Health
Records Act
“An Act to establish a right of access
to health records by the individuals to whom they relate and other persons; to
provide for the correction of inaccurate health records and for the avoidance
of certain contractual obligations; and for the connected purposes.” (Smale, 2015).
This act has become a bit out dated with
the revision of the Data Protection Act, but it did allow people access to
their medical records. Before this law
NHS could have disregarded a request for medical records.
1990
Environment Protection Act
The general message of this law was:
“An Act to make provision for the improved
control of pollution arising from certain industrial and other processes…to
amend the Radioactive Substances Act 1960… to amend the provisions of the
Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 as regards the dumping of waste at
sea” (www.legislation.gov.uk,
unknown).
Before this law passed an NHS worker may not have been
so aware that waste would have to be disposed of in a certain conscientious
manner. This law would not only protect
the environment but also protect the general public from potential hazardous
waste that could make them very unwell.
This is probably demonstrated by the appearance of yellow sharps bins.
1992 Environmental
Information Regulations Act
This act allows any
person to request information regarding any environmental matter. The request must be replied to as soon as
possible and no longer than two months should elapse before a reply is
provided. Refusals can be given, but
must be justified. Reasonable charges
can be put against the request.
“An access to environmental information regime has been in
place since1992, in the form of the Environmental Information Regulations
1992,as amended by the Environmental Information (Amendment) Regulations 1998,
and also the Environmental Information Regulations(Northern Ireland) 1993 and
1998. The introduction of replacement Regulations in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland (and of similar regulations in Scotland) enables compliance
with the UK’s commitments under the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making, and Access to Justice in Environmental
Matters (the “Aarhus” Convention), and with EU Directive 2003/4/EC.” (ICO,
unknown).
Increased access to environmental information provides the public
with information to discuss, have an educated contribution to public
environmental issues and decision making.
This supports the governments’ openness in the public sector (ICO,
unknown).
1994 Open Government
Code of Practice
This law details that
Ministers and Public Servants must justify policies, decisions made and actions
taken to the public. It is to encourage
a more open system so that information can be accessed by the public and
analysed (Gov UK, unknown).
This law would be aimed
at making things more transparent for the public and also has the consequence
that if the public can access information then the people responsible must be
able to justify their actions. Within
the NHS this would make people more accountable for actions taken and allows
people to query why certain actions were taken.
In the past points for debate or query may have gone unnoticed. It would encourage staff to have to be more
conscientious and take ownership of things they have done.
1995 Code of Practice on
Openness in the NHS
This law was introduced setting
out basic principles underlying public access to NHS information. This information includes: services provided;
the cost of these services, and performance against targets. Information is also given on any proposed
changes and opportunity given to influence decisions regarding these changes (Bynoe, 1996).
This law would result in
NHS staff having to reply to requests in a timely and positive manner. They would have to let the public know what
information they are able to access so the public can make an informed decision
as to whether they would like to view any information. The staff would therefore need to know where
to direct these queries and requests.
Also there would have to be a clear and effective complaints procedure that
is clearly advertised. Resulting in
someone having to be tasked with monitoring this and dealing with effectively (Bynoe, 1996).
1998 Public Interest
Disclosure Act
2000 Local Government
Act
2000 Local Authorities
(Executive Arrangements) (Access to information) (England) Regulations
Bibliography
Bynoe, I. (1996). Beyond the Citizen's Charter: New
Directions for Social Rights. London: Institute for Public Policy
Research.
Gov UK. (unknown, unknown unknown). Retrieved 11 16, 2015,
from www.gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/271975/2290.pdf
ICO. (unknown, unknown unknown). Retrieved 11 16, 2015,
from ICO: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1644/environmental_information_regulations_code_of_practice.pdf
Smale, T. (2015,
11 12). IT for Health Professionals. Course Material . Keele,
Staffordshire, England: Unknown.
www.legislation.gov.uk. (unknown, unknown unknown). Retrieved 11 15, 2015,
from www.legislation.gov.uk:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/35/contents
