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Recommendations made for Australian professional indemnity cover
Recommendations made for Australian professional indemnity over
After policy
4 years of research and
development, Australia’s Professional Review Indemnity Ms Fiona has now ,headed by Tito, The its terms of presented report. reference required the review to examine the for arrangements patients who are injured through or misadventure. negligence Problems such as funding were also to be addressed and solutions proposed. So far, only the 3-page executive summary has been published. The review process quickly revealed the wide-ranging effects of professional negligence and indemnity arrangements. It noted that the medicolegal climate is generally affected by mythology and misinfor-
mation
arising from the absence of
publicly available data on both health-care negligence actions and adverse events. The review’s report concludes that "the evidence for a so-called claims crisis is scant" and that increased reporting of incidents has been a direct response to efforts "by Medical Defence Organisations to get early notice of potential This increased reporting claims". has not, so far, been reflected in increased legal claims. The report also comments that underfunding of medical defence bodies should be managed by a fund contributed to by a levy on doctors’ premiums. Adequate professional indemnity cover is so important that the review
"Superfund" planned for Canada’s science will
create
a
Can$200-
Ottawa technology "superfund" million
and an Advisory Council on Science & Technology/Innovation when it releases its long-overdue science strategy in the forthcoming federal budget, according to a leaked copy of the plan. The plan also features a promise to issue annual updates measuring progress in achieving such
objectives
as
promoting partnerships
with the private sector. Devoted largely to management issues, the plan also designates a new special cabinet committee as responsible for setting S&T priorities, and all federal laboratories to requires submit their research programmes to "expert review by clients, stakeholders and peers in order to ensure ...scientific, economic and environmental excellence". But the blueprint will not be released until late February or March. Sources say it will be included in Finance minister Paul Martin’s 1996 budget as a "good news" item offsetting the impact of additional spending cuts. It is also hoped the plan will resuscitate the twoLiberals’ (Grits’) ballyhooed track economic strategy, under which they proposed to pursue deficit reduction while implementing measures that would promote economic
growth. The plan advocates a more "strategic" approach to the development of S&T policies and programmes, but it falls well short of the comprehensive S&T strategies that other nations have introduced to develop research256
drive industries. Although it creates a management regime that theoretically could yield necessary changes in federal decision-making processes, the plan lacks major strategic initiatives to develop specific industrial sectors or technologies. Its main
the$200-million
measure,
super-
fund, is really just a reconstitution of two industrial support programmes axed in the last federal budget. Also falling short of expectations are Grit plans for a new science advisory council to replace the defunct National Advisory Board on S&T. Instead, the Grits will create an insider’s group of 10-15 industrialists and invite them twice annually to a cabinet committee meeting to review Ottawa’s S&T performance. The Grits argue that a more analytical advisory body is not needed because an interdepartmental science coordinating committee, and cabinet itself, will provide a long-term perspective when they review the annual S&T plans (including performance indicators) that all departments will be required to develop. Each year, Ottawa will subsequently publish an overall S&T report outlining its progress in
achieving such objectives building information networks; strengthening international S&T linkages; and promoting a "stronger as
science culture". But the scientific Canada
dicting fall flat
community in sceptical and is prethe plan will ultimately
seems
that its face.
on
cover
recommends it be made an offence to provide health care without it. Other specific recommendations of tax relate to modifications to encourage the use arrangements of structured settlements in larger compensation cases and wider use of court-based case-management methods to overcome unnecessary delays in resolution of cases. Emphasis is also placed on resolving as many disputes as early as possible through
improved provider-consumer communication together with better use of health-care complaints systems and alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms.
Stephen Cordner
News in brief UK MRC triage pilots The UK Medical Research Committee grants committee are to pilot triage of grants proposals. Two or more members of the scientific community with "pre-screen" all applications. It is intended that this will eliminate at an early stage proposals that have no prospect of securing funding. A similar procedure will be piloted by the Clinical Training Fellowship Panel and Research Fellowship Panel, to give early notice to applicants who have no prospect of being considered for a training award. The remaining proposals will be shortlisted in the usual way. Non-EU doctors in France Draft legislation tabled by the French government might ease the anxieties of non-European doctors working in France who faced an enforced return to their own countries law under adopted in February last year (see Lancet Jan 6, p51). But the draft emphasises that permission to stay will be given on an individual and temporary basis by the Health Ministry.
French charity chief resigns Jaques Crozemarie, founder and president of the French cancer research charity, Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC), has resigned 2 weeks after the country’s financial watchdog found that only 27-2% of the charity’s 1993 income
was
spent
on
(see Lancet, Jan 13, p107). Wayne
Kondro
research
After policy
4 years of research and
development, Australia’s Professional Review Indemnity Ms Fiona has now ,headed by Tito, The its terms of presented report. reference required the review to examine the for arrangements patients who are injured through or misadventure. negligence Problems such as funding were also to be addressed and solutions proposed. So far, only the 3-page executive summary has been published. The review process quickly revealed the wide-ranging effects of professional negligence and indemnity arrangements. It noted that the medicolegal climate is generally affected by mythology and misinfor-
mation
arising from the absence of
publicly available data on both health-care negligence actions and adverse events. The review’s report concludes that "the evidence for a so-called claims crisis is scant" and that increased reporting of incidents has been a direct response to efforts "by Medical Defence Organisations to get early notice of potential This increased reporting claims". has not, so far, been reflected in increased legal claims. The report also comments that underfunding of medical defence bodies should be managed by a fund contributed to by a levy on doctors’ premiums. Adequate professional indemnity cover is so important that the review
"Superfund" planned for Canada’s science will
create
a
Can$200-
Ottawa technology "superfund" million
and an Advisory Council on Science & Technology/Innovation when it releases its long-overdue science strategy in the forthcoming federal budget, according to a leaked copy of the plan. The plan also features a promise to issue annual updates measuring progress in achieving such
objectives
as
promoting partnerships
with the private sector. Devoted largely to management issues, the plan also designates a new special cabinet committee as responsible for setting S&T priorities, and all federal laboratories to requires submit their research programmes to "expert review by clients, stakeholders and peers in order to ensure ...scientific, economic and environmental excellence". But the blueprint will not be released until late February or March. Sources say it will be included in Finance minister Paul Martin’s 1996 budget as a "good news" item offsetting the impact of additional spending cuts. It is also hoped the plan will resuscitate the twoLiberals’ (Grits’) ballyhooed track economic strategy, under which they proposed to pursue deficit reduction while implementing measures that would promote economic
growth. The plan advocates a more "strategic" approach to the development of S&T policies and programmes, but it falls well short of the comprehensive S&T strategies that other nations have introduced to develop research256
drive industries. Although it creates a management regime that theoretically could yield necessary changes in federal decision-making processes, the plan lacks major strategic initiatives to develop specific industrial sectors or technologies. Its main
the$200-million
measure,
super-
fund, is really just a reconstitution of two industrial support programmes axed in the last federal budget. Also falling short of expectations are Grit plans for a new science advisory council to replace the defunct National Advisory Board on S&T. Instead, the Grits will create an insider’s group of 10-15 industrialists and invite them twice annually to a cabinet committee meeting to review Ottawa’s S&T performance. The Grits argue that a more analytical advisory body is not needed because an interdepartmental science coordinating committee, and cabinet itself, will provide a long-term perspective when they review the annual S&T plans (including performance indicators) that all departments will be required to develop. Each year, Ottawa will subsequently publish an overall S&T report outlining its progress in
achieving such objectives building information networks; strengthening international S&T linkages; and promoting a "stronger as
science culture". But the scientific Canada
dicting fall flat
community in sceptical and is prethe plan will ultimately
seems
that its face.
on
cover
recommends it be made an offence to provide health care without it. Other specific recommendations of tax relate to modifications to encourage the use arrangements of structured settlements in larger compensation cases and wider use of court-based case-management methods to overcome unnecessary delays in resolution of cases. Emphasis is also placed on resolving as many disputes as early as possible through
improved provider-consumer communication together with better use of health-care complaints systems and alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms.
Stephen Cordner
News in brief UK MRC triage pilots The UK Medical Research Committee grants committee are to pilot triage of grants proposals. Two or more members of the scientific community with "pre-screen" all applications. It is intended that this will eliminate at an early stage proposals that have no prospect of securing funding. A similar procedure will be piloted by the Clinical Training Fellowship Panel and Research Fellowship Panel, to give early notice to applicants who have no prospect of being considered for a training award. The remaining proposals will be shortlisted in the usual way. Non-EU doctors in France Draft legislation tabled by the French government might ease the anxieties of non-European doctors working in France who faced an enforced return to their own countries law under adopted in February last year (see Lancet Jan 6, p51). But the draft emphasises that permission to stay will be given on an individual and temporary basis by the Health Ministry.
French charity chief resigns Jaques Crozemarie, founder and president of the French cancer research charity, Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC), has resigned 2 weeks after the country’s financial watchdog found that only 27-2% of the charity’s 1993 income
was
spent
on
(see Lancet, Jan 13, p107). Wayne
Kondro
research