Clinical Claims And The Use Of Mediation As An Alternative Dispute Resolution By The Irish And British Health Systems – A Multiple-Case Study Over The Last Five Years

Abstract

This dissertation was done as a mandatory conclusion project of the MA in Dispute Resolution completed in Independent College Dublin in November 2022.

This research aims to explore how the governments of Ireland and England have been dealing with clinical claims in their health public system, using mediation as an alternative dispute resolution in the last five years.

The objectives to guide this research were:

To explore how the Irish and British governments have been managing complaints from their health public system involving health professionals, hospital or other healthcare service providers and their patients and/or families who allege medical negligence.

To identify the use of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution practice in cases of clinical claims occurred in Ireland and England in the last five years.

This research constituted of a multiple case study comparing systems in both countries, using a documental review as source for a quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Among the main findings, it was possible to conclude that both countries have been using mediation in cases involving clinical claims occurred in their health public system over the last five years. However, it has been applied in different ways and approaches, meeting the necessities and resources in each country.

The author concluded that just this research it is not enough to deeply comprehend the system of management of clinical claims in Ireland and England and their outcomes using mediation as alternative dispute resolution. Nonetheless, it is expected that this research can provide reliable source of information to the study of mediation in the health area, mainly to the use on clinical claims.