Healthcare

The Mental Health Bill 2024, which will replace the existing Mental Health Acts 2001-2022, has been published. The lengthy bill now has 202 sections — up from the 197 sections announced last week due to "formatting/drafting changes made during the quality assurance process".

Major reforms to mental health legislation have been approved by ministers. The Mental Health Bill, to be published next week, will replace the existing Mental Health Acts 2001–2022 with the aim of providing a modern legal framework that will protect the rights of people with mental health dif

A medical negligence claim concerning a 12-year-old girl who suffered brain damage at birth has been settled for just under £21 million, making it one of the largest-ever settlements of its kind in Northern Ireland. Eoin Kearney of Derry-based Brendan Kearney & Co Solicitors, a member of A

Business law firm Mason Hayes & Curran has launched a new analysis of trends and regulatory shifts in the EU's digital health sector over the past six months. The Mid-Year Digital Health Guide focuses on critical developments that are shaping digital health in 2024 and lays the groundwork for wh

The EU AI Act is poised to be a catalyst for innovation in medtech, a new Mason Hayes & Curran survey suggests. The business law firm polled close to 200 professionals from the medtech sector at its recent webinar titled "What the AI Act Means for Medical Devices". The findings come as the new r

Marguerite Kehoe BL reviews recent case law highlighting the systemic challenges face by the CFA in securing an adequate number of special care beds for minors requiring assistance. The inability of the Child and Family Agency (CFA) to provide sufficient special care beds has been the subject of sev

Free hospital car parking in Northern Ireland has to be delayed in part due to legal challenges affecting plans to use automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology, health minister Robin Swann has said. The Hospital Parking Charges Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, which bans the imposition of pa

Mark Connaughton SC has been appointed as the independent chair of the new Paediatric Spinal Taskforce. The government has established the multi-stakeholder taskforce in a bid to cut waiting times for children who need spinal surgery.

A national open disclosure framework for the health and social sector has been launched, applying beyond the HSE to all private health and social care providers as well as health regulators and educational bodies. The new framework was launched by health minister Stephen Donnelly at the National Pat

Katie Nugent of Hayes solicitors discusses a recent clinical negligence claim and the Court of Appeal's decision in respect of the role of interrogatories. In Ashling O’Sullivan (A minor) suing by her mother and next friend Grace O’Sullivan v Michael O’Riordan and Mercy University

The Mental Health Commission (MHC) has invited lawyers to assist in the development of new guidance and training on a human rights-based approach to care for mental health services. The MHC has engaged the Munster Technological University and its UNESCO Chair research centre to support the developme

Solicitor Deirdre O'Grady has been appointed to the board of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for a 10-month term. Ms O'Grady has over 20 years' experience in legal, tax, governance, compliance and risk management.

The High Court has ruled that the Health Service Executive did not owe a duty of care to the parents of a woman who died from cervical cancer following an alleged misdiagnosis in the cancer screening process. The HSE had argued that the decision in Morrissey v. Health Service Executive and Ors. [201

Michael Graham, head of private client at Cleaver Fulton Rankin, considers changes to continuing healthcare in Northern Ireland in the wake of a High Court ruling. In a judgment delivered on 30 June 2023, Northern Ireland's High Court quashed the decision of the Department of Health to adopt a contr