EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment of Users of Social and Health Care Services

Empowerment of Users of Social and Health Care Services

Introduction

Medical treatment is a need of every human being. It is a common practice for them to see a doctor whenever an illness falls arises. As the population of individual countries and perhaps, of the whole world is increasing, the role of organizations that provide health and social care services is also intensifying. The greater the population, the greater the number of patients and individuals these organizations need to cater.

Providing medical and health care services is a crucial task, and needs extensive care in its provision. It is the birth right of every individual to get due medical treatment in case he or she needs it. A single or even a small mistake by the medical staff can lead to the death of the patient. Even a short delay in rushing the patient towards the hospital may prove to be costly.

As a result, governments of different countries have called on for the need of legislation in this regard, and this legislation is aimed at maximizing the rights of the users who are using health and social care services. The rights of such individuals need to be protected (Patient Rights, 2012).

While accomplishing the above mentioned tasks, the governments or those responsible for the legislation need to consider a number of different factors such as demography and the economy. Let us consider the topic in some detail.

Discussion

1.1 Legislation and sector skill standards

A number of legislations have been made by the government in order to maximize the rights of users of health and social care services. On 27th May, European Union announced that it has adopted a new legislation that is aimed at protecting and maximizing the rights of medical service users (Parker, 2006). The legislation came in context of a serious rise in the cases of use of falsified medicines. This step is regarded to be a landmark in the way of counteracting against this issue. The new legislation introduction of a new safety and control measures that can reduce the threat posed to the society be this issue. According to the legislation, falsified medicines would be identified before they get into the hands of the patient. To do this, new techniques based on modern technology would be deployed. Other initiatives include use of logo that would be commonly issued to be used by all the companies that are operating legally throughout the region. Falsified medicines are different than counterfeit medicines, but are equally dangerous to the society (Rodionova et.al, 2005, pp. 151-158). This legislation aims at introducing a modern system that can stop falsified medicines before they reach the patients.

To achieve the above mentioned objectives, new measures have been taken such as much strict inspection of the plants that manufacture medicines, much strict record keeping of the medicine distributors and use of an authenticity feature that would be present on the outer packaging of the ...