Owusu-Dapaa, Ernest and Ost, Suzanne and Skogly, Sigrun (2016) An inquiry into the emergence of health care law in England and Wales as a distinct body of law : what lessons can be drawn from this in relation to Ghana? PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
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Abstract
In this thesis, it is postulated that a discrete body of health care law (HCL) can potentially offer more benefits to patients by providing protection for their rights and improving healthcare delivery as a result of making healthcare professionals and workers more aware of their legal duties towards patients than is the case where a field of HCL is absent. The emergence of a discrete body of HCL in England and Wales has not received a great deal of attention in the academic literature; there has not, as of yet, been any thorough study of the questions of how and why this relatively new field of law emerged three decades ago. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature and explores those attractive elements of HCL in the law of England and Wales that may be emulated by a jurisdiction like Ghana, which is seeking to develop this field of the law. A combination of legal history and empirical legal research methodologies are deployed to unpack the development of HCL in England and Wales as a response to the quest for patient empowerment in healthcare and the need to recognise the voice of society in mediating ethical dilemmas generated by rapid advances in medicine. The characteristics of HCL and rationale for its emergence in England and Wales are used as a basis of comparison within a functional comparative analytical framework in order to explore the need for the development of HCL in Ghana, as well as any lessons that may be drawn from the former.