to benefit New Zealand
Health and Disability Commissioner wins NZ's most prestigious legal fellowship
4th December 2009
THE 2009 NZ Law Foundation International Research Fellowship Te Karahipi Rangahau A Taiao has been awarded to outgoing Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson.
New Zealand's most prestigious legal prize was announced at a gala dinner last night in the Grand Hall at Parliament. The Attorney-General, the Hon. Chris Finlayson, presented the award to Mr Paterson.
Ron has been granted this award, worth $125,000, for research entitled "The Good Doctor - finding the optimal balance between professionalism and external regulation to ensure patient safety." The background to his research topic is raising public interest in the safety and quality of medical care in NZ and internationally. A series of medical scandals and public inquiries have fuelled a lack of public confidence in the adequacy of medical professional self-regulation, and led to calls for more accountability in the health system.
Major public inquiries in NZ and elsewhere have eroded confidence in traditional models of self-regulation and led to major reforms resulting in increased external regulation, including our own Health and Disability Commissioner system. Yet for all the debates and reforms, there is still no universally recognised means of ensuring an individual doctor is competent to practise. Public reporting of performance data about doctors is still very limited.
Ron Paterson's research will examine how best the public can be confident that an individual, registered doctor is a 'good doctor.'
Ron will be based at Auckland University Law Faculty, when he takes up his position as Professor of Law in that faculty on 1 May 2010. The research will involve case studies and interviews with relevant experts in NZ, Australia (Melbourne), the UK (Oxford), the US (The Hastings Centre, New York), and Canada (Toronto).
The research findings are likely to be influential in New Zealand and internationally, and it is hoped they will lead to impovements in New Zealand's health regulatory system, enhanced patient safety, and a better informed public.
The research will run from 1 May 2010 to 1 March 2011.