Report on its study of municipal public employees labor relations law /

Mode of access: Internet.

Financial and Criminal Responsibility for Public Funds – Protection of the Constitutional Fundamental Social Law of Health

Abstract: The implementation of Fundamental Constitutional Health and Social Rights is necessary, appropriate and proportionate, following the demands of the population. Accountability and self-responsibility play a very important role. This requires the development of constitutional principles that protect public funds against corruption and offer a constitutional right to health protection. Financial and criminal liability might provide an incentive to improve the management of public funds and reinforce fundamental constitutional principles, particularly regarding the right to health. Constitutional, administrative and criminal issues, as well as public management and administration and the science of good governance, should be articulated in a single strategy also in the health sector. In Portugal and Brazil, as examples, the Federal Court / Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court / High Court of Justice or the Court of Auditors should be considered together.

The role of the church in developing the law

The church and other community organisations have a legitimate role to play in influencing public policy. However, intervention by the church and other religious bodies in recent litigation in Australia and the United Kingdom raises questions about the appropriateness of such bodies being permitted to intervene directly in the court process as amici curiae. We argue that there are dangers in such bodies insinuating their doctrine under the guise of legal argument in civil proceedings, but find it difficult to enunciate a principled distinction between doctrine and legal argument. We advise that judges should exercise caution in dealing with amicus submissions.

Performance measurement and management in Portuguese law enforcement

Performance measurement of police services is complicated by ambiguous and complex goal- and objectives-setting, and by the difficulties of measuring outputs. This article looks at the organizational and management changes being made in Portuguese police forces. The authors fill a gap in the literature on performance measurement in Portugal by taking a national approach to the study of how law enforcement agencies are introducing new management accounting changes. The article therefore widens the debate on performance measurement and performance improvements in law enforcement.

Evaluation of pharmaceutical assistance in public primary care in Brasília, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Pharmaceutical assistance is essential in health care and a right of citizens according to Brazilian law and drug policies. The study purpose was to evaluate aspects of pharmaceutical assistance in public primary health care. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using WHO drug indicators was carried out in Brasília in 2001. From a random sample of 15 out of 62 centers thirty exiting patients per center were interviewed. RESULTS: Only 18.7% of the patients fully understood the prescription, 56.3% could read it, 61.2% of the prescribed drugs were actually dispensed, and mean duration of pharmaceutical dispensing was 53.2 seconds. Each visit lasted on average 9.4 minutes. Of prescribed and non-dispensed drugs, 85.3% and 60.6% were on the local essential drug list (EDL) respectively. On average 83.2% of 40 essential drugs were in stock, and only two centers had a pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy. The mean number of drugs per prescription was 2.3, 85.3% of prescribed drugs were on the EDL, 73.2% were prescribed using the generic denomination, 26.4% included antibiotics and 7.5% were injectables. The most prescribed groups were: cardiovascular drugs (26.8%), anti-infective drugs (13.1%), analgesics (8.9%), anti-asthmatic drugs (5.8%), anti-diabetic drugs (5.3%), psychoactive drugs (3.7%), and combination drugs (2.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Essential drugs were only moderately available almost 30 years after the first Brazilian EDL was formulated. While physician use of essential drugs and generic names was fairly high, efficiency was impaired by the poor quality of pharmaceutical care, resulting in very low patient understanding and insufficient guarantee of supply, particularly for chronic diseases.

Sharing best practices in introducing and teaching ethics principles to public administration employees : research report

O projeto, financiado pelo Programa Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida, decorreu entre 1 de agosto de 2011 e 31 de julho de 2013 e foi coordenado pelo Instituto de Administração Pública de Praga, tendo como parceiros a Escola de Economia e Direito de Berlim, a Escola Nacional de Administração Pública da Polónia e o INA, de Portugal. A coordenação portuguesa do estudo esteve a cargo da Prof. Doutora Helena Rato e da Dra. Matilde Gago, com a colaboração do Prof. Doutor César Madureira e da Dra. Margarida Quintela, ex investigadores do INA, atualmente na DGAEP.

Defining health law or the edgewood syndrome

ABSTRACT - The authors’ main purpose is to present ideas on defining Health Law by highlighting the particularities of the field of Health Law as well as of the teaching of this legal branch, hoping to contribute to the maturity and academic recognition of Health Law, not only as a very rich legal field but also as a powerful social instrument in the fulfillment of fundamental human rights. The authors defend that Health Law has several characteristics that distinguish it from traditional branches of law such as its complexity and multidisciplinary nature. The study of Health Law normally covers issues such as access to care, health systems organization, patients’ rights, health professionals’ rights and duties, strict liability, healthcare contracts between institutions and professionals, medical data protection and confidentiality, informed consent and professional secrecy, crossing different legal fields including administrative, antitrust, constitutional, contract, corporate, criminal, environmental, food and drug, intellectual property, insurance, international and supranational, labor/employment, property, taxation, and tort law. This is one of the reasons why teaching Health Law presents a challenge to the teacher, which will have to find the programs, content and methods appropriate to the profile of recipients which are normally non jurists and the needs of a multidisciplinary curricula. By describing academic definitions of Health Law as analogous to Edgewood, a fiction house which has a different architectural style in each of its walls, the authors try to describe which elements should compose a more comprehensive definition. In this article Biolaw, Bioethics and Human Rights are defined as complements to a definition of Health Law: Biolaw because it is the legal field that treats the social consequences that arise from technological advances in health and life sciences; Bioethics which evolutions normally influence the shape of the legal framework of Health; and, finally Human Rights theory and declarations are outlined as having always been historically linked to medicine and health, being the umbrella that must cover all the issues raised in the area of Health Law. To complete this brief incursion on the definition on Health Law the authors end by giving note of the complex relations between this field of Law and Public Health. Dealing more specifically on laws adopted by governments to provide important health services and regulate industries and individual conduct that affect the health of the populations, this aspect of Health Law requires special attention to avoid an imbalance between public powers and individual freedoms. The authors conclude that public trust in any health system is essentially sustained by developing health structures which are consistent with essential fundamental rights, such as the universal right to access health care, and that the study of Health Law can contribute with important insights into both health structures and fundamental rights in order to foster a health system that respects the Rule of Law.-------------------------- RESUMO – O objectivo principal dos autores é apresentar ideias sobre a definição de Direito da Saúde, destacando as particularidades desta área do direito, bem como do ensino deste ramo jurídico, na esperança de contribuir para a maturidade e para o reconhecimento académico do mesmo, não só como um campo juridicamente muito rico, mas, também, como um poderoso instrumento social no cumprimento dos direitos humanos fundamentais. Os autores defendem que o Direito da Saúde tem diversas características que o distinguem dos ramos tradicionais do direito, como a sua complexidade e natureza multidisciplinar. O estudo do Direito da Saúde abrangendo normalmente questões como o acesso aos cuidados, a organização dos sistemas de saúde, os direitos e deveres dos doentes e dos profissionais de saúde, a responsabilidade civil, os contratos entre instituições de saúde e profissionais, a protecção e a confidencialidade de dados clínicos, o consentimento informado e o sigilo profissional, implica uma abordagem transversal de diferentes áreas legais, incluindo os Direitos contratual, administrativo, antitrust, constitucional, empresarial, penal, ambiental, alimentar, farmacêutico, da propriedade intelectual, dos seguros, internacional e supranacional, trabalho, fiscal e penal. Esta é uma das razões pelas quais o ensino do Direito da Saúde representa um desafio para o professor, que terá de encontrar os programas, conteúdos e métodos adequados ao perfil dos destinatários, que são normalmente não juristas e às necessidades de um currículo multidisciplinar. Ao descrever as várias definições académicas de Direito da Saúde como análogas a Edgewood, uma casa de ficção que apresenta um estilo arquitectónico diferente em cada uma de suas paredes, os autores tentam encontrar os elementos que deveriam compor uma definição mais abrangente. No artigo, Biodireito, Bioética e Direitos Humanos são descritos como complementos de uma definição de Direito da Saúde: o Biodireito, dado que é o campo jurídico que trata as consequências sociais que surgem dos avanços tecnológicos na área da saúde e das ciências da vida; a Bioética cujas evoluções influenciam normalmente o quadro jurídico da Saúde; e, por fim, a teoria dos Direitos Humanos e as suas declarações as quais têm estado sempre historicamente ligadas à medicina e à saúde, devendo funcionar como pano de fundo de todas as questões levantadas na área do Direito da Saúde. Para finalizar a sua breve incursão sobre a definição de Direito da Saúde, os autores dão ainda nota das complexas relações entre este último e a Saúde Pública, onde se tratam mais especificamente as leis aprovadas pelos governos para regular os serviços de saúde, as indústrias e as condutas individuais que afectam a saúde das populações, aspecto do Direito da Saúde que requer uma atenção especial para evitar um desequilíbrio entre os poderes públicos e as liberdades individuais. Os autores concluem afirmando que a confiança do público em qualquer sistema de saúde é, essencialmente, sustentada pelo desenvolvimento de estruturas de saúde que sejam consistentes com o direito constitucional da saúde, tais como o direito universal ao acesso a cuidados de saúde, e que o estudo do Direito da Saúde pode contribuir com elementos