compensation
The power of drama
Oh wow! What an amazing response to a drama.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office is based on a real life story of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. More than 700 sub-postmasters and -mistresses were falsely accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, after faulty software made it look as if money was missing – large sums of money. They had long complained about bugs in the system after it erroneously reported shortfalls; some had even used their own money to plug the gaps. Following the convictions, lives were devastated. Reputations were shredded, families bankrupted and shunned. Marriages, businesses and job prospects were ruined. Some people were imprisoned. Some took their own lives.
Prosecutions for these supposed thefts took place between 1999 and 2015. After 20 years of maintaining their innocence, campaigners eventually won a legal battle to have their cases reconsidered. Twenty years!
A public inquiry began in February 2021, but three years on many victims are still fighting for justice, or to secure full compensation. To date only 93 convictions have been overturned, even though it is now undisputed that the software was to blame. That same software, Horizon, is still being used by the Post Office; this new version is described as ‘robust’.
The delays are unconscionable, but a drama has precipitated real action. From 1-4 January 2024 ITV aired four instalments of Mr Bates vs the Post Office, with Toby Jones playing the title character, sub-postmaster Mr Bates, with his customary skill and appeal.
Then on Wednesday 10 January, the BBC devoted an hour of the morning news programme Breakfast, to listening to nine of the real life victims of the Post Office scandal, and allowing them to ask questions of the relevant government minister on air.
At lunch time that same day, 10 January, (yesterday) the prime minister announced new legislation to ‘swiftly exonerate and compensate’ victims.
Wow! I rather suspect the British public will not now allow this promise to go unfulfilled. Such is the power of storytelling.
Everyday ethics
Wow! We’re only five plus weeks into 2022, and already the papers seem to have been full of stories centred around ethical questions. Time to share a few by way of illustrating their prevalence in our everyday lives.
A survey of almost 300 members by the Association of Palliative Medicine, published on 26 January, has shown that doctors are concerned over the focus on negative and traumatic deaths, while ignoring good palliative care leading to gentle easeful deaths. They believe the public are being scared into supporting assisted dying. The timing of this is significant, given that the Government’s Health and Care Bill to legalise assisted dying within a year of the Act coming into force, is currently being processed in the House of Lords.
Current guidance for the forthcoming Scottish census is that transgender people can select their preferred sex/gender identity even in the absence of a gender recognition certificate. A feminist group, Fair Play for Women, have brought a case against this to a top civil court, calling on the judges to strike down this advice. Under present rules, a person must have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, live in their acquired gender for two years, and have their application approved by an expert panel to officially claim a new gender identity; under the SNP plans, self declaration would suffice.
A call has been made for compensation for the approximately 40,000 care workers who lost their jobs because of the mandatory vaccination against Covid policy, now that the measure has been deemed no longer proportionate.
The Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency is proposing to reclassify a vaginal oestrogen tablet – Gina 10; a form of HRT costing as little as £2.50 per week – so that women over the age of 50 can purchase it over the counter. A consultation, seeking the views of GPs, pharmacists and members of the public, is scheduled to take place. Until now such medication has required consultation with a doctor. The proposed new arrangement might still require the input of a pharmacist.
The ongoing debate about inequality where female transgender athletes compete in women’s sport has been revisited in the case of a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who has broken records in women’s races after transitioning from male to female.
The Health and Social Care Secretary has set out a vision to make Britain a world leader in cancer care. It includes the introduction of new technologies, including vaccines, designed to boost survival rates, as well as new ways to boost early diagnosis. Even before the pandemic Britain’s survival rates lagged behind many other Western nations; since the pandemic the figures for missed diagnoses and delayed treatment have plummeted still further.
The world’s most expensive drug, Libmeldy – a gene therapy that costs £2.8 million per treatment – is to be offered on the NHS to young people suffering from a rare genetic condition called metachromatic leukodystrophy, following a landmark deal. The condition causes severe damage to the nervous system and organs, and carries a life expectancy of 5-8 years.
Recently, No10, the Treasury, the Department of Health and the NHS have been discussing a multi-million pound National Recovery Plan to tackle the NHS backlog exacerbated by the pandemic. Now the Treasury has put on ice an announcement about it, which was due to be made on Monday this week. This comes at a time of mounting unrest in Government following a series of revelations about broken Covid rules in Downing Street and unfortunate statements by the Prime Minister. Speculations abound.
The Children’s Commissioner has revealed that more than 100,000 children (1 in 4) referred with mental health issues were discharged before receiving treatment. This was the finding in a survey of more than half a million children. The Department of Health and Social Care have now committed an additional £79 million this year for children’s mental health services.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have advised doctors to stop providing wholly inappropriate treatment to infertile couples who request unproven add-on therapies in a bid to improve their chances of having a baby. Increasing numbers of couples are asking for them after misleading claims made in marketing or internet forums.
There is certainly no shortage of topics for exercising the brain when it comes to medicine today, is there? Every one of these issues raises so many fascinating and challenging questions. Were I to continue writing novels in the area of medical ethics (still under review incidentally) there would be plenty to keep me occupied for the next twenty years!