Since 2004, the number of people living with HIV (PLWH) has steadily increased by about 5% and currently, the number in Texas is about 86,000. Though the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan seeks to ensure “unfettered access to quality healthcare”, barriers to access still exist especially among minority populations. This study examines the relationship between HIV infection rates and the geographic location of HIV service centers with a focus on 4 counties: namely, Dallas, Denton, Harris and Tarrant. The goal is to show whether there is a spatial mismatch between HIV rates and service providers. Are service facilities located in zip codes where they are most needed? Using the vulnerability framework and the Inverse Care Law (ICL), we address the research question using demographic variables (race/ethnicity, sex, poverty, education attainment) and HIV data. Our results show that extreme vulnerable zip codes have high HIV rates and closest proximity to HIV service providers.

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The study examines the work of the coroner. The thesis is sociological in orientation and method, drawing where necessary from other disciplines, e.g. law, philosophy. The study concentrates upon the nature of coroners' categorisations and the production of the socially recognised 'facts of sudden death'. While detailed consideration is given to the inquest and inquest verdicts, the whole range of coroners' work is examined. Differing but complementary research methods are employed to yield essentially qualitative material. Existing sociological studies, e.g. of 'official statistics' and of suicide, are evaluated. Coroners' methods of ascribing meaning to sudden death are examined. An important aim is to render processes of construction 'visible' for sociological study.Part One (Chapters One and Two) opens with a review of theoretical issues in sociology. The methodology of the study is 'located' within sociological theory. Part One continues with an historical discussion of the office of coroner, and an outline of legislation and formal medico-legal procedure.Part Two (Chapters Three, Four and Five) forms the largest section of the study, consisting of material collected by field research, i.e., interviews with the coroners of five counties, systematic observation of inquests, and unpublished/published statistics. Provisional conclusions are discussed as the study progresses, covering topics which include, inter alia: discretionary authority; the inquest as court of law; the differing perceptions of individual coroners; the relevance of historical factors; the Press; methods of constructing the verdict; the roles of doctors, pathologists and police; social control; official statistics; and historical and geographical statistical variations.Part Three (Chapters Six and Seven) draws overall conclusions about coroners' accounts of sudden death. It places coroners work within bureaucratic and ideological contexts. The work of the coroner is situated in terms of the ways society conceives of and deals with death as a whole.Two short appendices add further statistics and further methodological details.

This thesis sets out to examine the place of patient choice in English health care, primarily within the National Health Service and in relationship to English law with regard to (a) informed consents and information and risk disclosure, and (b) confidentiality and privacy in relation to the access to and management of patient information. The analysis in underpinned with a limited review of the associations between choice and respect for individual autonomy. Health policy rhetoric has been laden with references to pro-patient choice in recent years and yet this research re-affirms that in law (still) it is the negative patient choice that carries weight in matters of consent to treatment. There is (still) no place for real demand. Similarly, in individual medical information access and management there is no sanction for demand, even negative patient choice is bounded. In both aspects of health care the ‘choices’ are (rightly) limited and can hardly constitute choice as the consumer-patient might see it. What the three papers contribute is the recognition that restrictions in patient choice are necessary; to be supported and for some individuals should be even more fettered than that of the general public in the interest of that general public. The papers examine the language of choice and find it lacking in transparency, with the reality dissociated from patient engagement, information dissemination and shared decision making; so compromising trust. If the health care system is to genuinely respect the individual autonomy of the capable adult and not utilise choice language as covert method of policy implementation, the language of what is on offer and why, the reasons for information acquisition and use and why, needs to be part of the patient-practitioner discussion as well as clarified in policy.

En underutbyggd primärvård med bristande tillgänglighet och långa väntetider motiverade den då sittande regeringen att införa vårdvalsreformen med fri etableringsrätt i samtliga landsting år 2010. Målet med att öppna marknaden för privata vårdgivare var att öka tillgängligheten, minska väntetiderna och samtidigt uppnå en ökad kvalitet för samtliga vårdleverantörer och ge fler alternativ för befolkningen. Enligt hälso- och sjukvårdslagens (HSL) etiska plattform ska vård ges på lika villkor och prioritera dem med störst behov på ett så kostnadseffektivt sätt som möjligt. Det har både startats nya och lagts ner vårdcentraler sedan reformen infördes, totalt sett har antalet ökat. Frågan är om denna ökning skett i enlighet med HSL. Vårdbehov skiljer sig åt runt om i landet och tidigare forskning visar på att socioekonomiska förutsättningar samvarierar med hälsa. Med en linjär sannolikhetsmodell undersöks i denna uppsats om de socioekonomiska förutsättningarna och det förväntade vårdbehovet på områdesnivå påverkar var det etableras vårdcentraler. Resultaten visar att ett områdes socioekonomiska profil kan ha betydelse i vårdgivarens val av lokalisering. Nytillkomna vårdcentraler har främst etablerats i befolkningstäta områden med hög medelinkomst, en stor andel högutbildade och/eller en låg andel individer äldre än 70 år. Denna utvecklig talar för en försvårad uppgift att uppnå vårdens etiska principer enligt HSL. Detta arbete har utförts som en del av granskningen ”Primärvårdens styrning – efter behov eller efterfrågan?”, Riksrevisionen (rapport 2014:22).

Nikola Šubrtová - Legal regulation of veterinary care Abstract My thesis is meant to be a humble attempt to describe rules or law governing animal care and animal protection in Czech Republic and in European Union as well. I tried to look closer at the concept on animal welfare as it reflects in czech legal order. This paper consists of nine chapters and the main laws analyzed in it are Act No. 166/1999 Coll., on veterinary care and Act No 246/1992 Coll., on the protection of animals against cruelty. My special focus was on animal protection during scientific procedures on animals and related regulations.

Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 93-95. / M.C.P.

Based on an analysis of the Swedish laws in the field of healthcare, the purpose of this essay in jurisprudence is to examine whether Sweden has a need to implement the new EU-resolution on abortion. The study is based upon legal sources such as official government reports (SOU) as well as words of an Act. The subject also deals with ethical standards and more community-oriented material, and texts from both these areas are also included. The Swedish laws in health care are extensive, but still put the patient first. Care givers are able to delegate their responsibility if it means good health care which is also a key word in the Swedish health care. This means that the current laws are covering large areas of care and, as with many other laws in the country; it is up to each individual to interpret them. / Utifrån en analys av de svenska lagarna inom området vård är syftet med denna uppsats i rättsvetenskap är att undersöka om Sverige har ett behov av att implementera den nya EU-resolutionen angående abort. Studien är uppbyggd på såväl lagtext som statliga offentliga utredningar men då ämnet även tar upp etiska normer och även är mer samhällsinriktad har material inom båda dessa områden också medtagits. De svenska lagarna inom vården är omfattande men sätter ändå patienten främst. Vårgivare har möjlighet att delegera sitt ansvar om det innebär god vård vilket också är ett ledord inom den svenska vården. Detta innebär att dagens lagar täcker stora områdena inom vården och som med många andra lagar i landet är det upp till var och en att tolka dem.

Lack of access to essential medicines has proven to be a persisting problem which is in conflict with the goal of realising the right to health envisaged by the South African constitution and international human rights instruments. With more than twenty years of democracy, South Africa is still plaguing with a multiplicity of pandemics such as HIV and AIDS, cancer, malaria, tuberculosis, among others, leading to premature death and untold suffering of the people. According to a 2015 United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) Gap report, South Africa is still regarded as the epicentre of HIV and other infectious diseases. The 2015 UNAIDS Gap report states that South Africa has more women than men living with HIV and AIDS. The report further indicates that the impact of this pandemic is worsened by the inaccessibility of essential medicines that are vital for life saving. This dissertation posits that the epidemiological health crisis described above can be largely eradicated through the utilisation of the right to health. The right to health, according to this dissertation, contains a legal and transformative power which can be utilised to limit the negative impact of patent laws on access to essential medicines in South Africa. This dissertation validates the long held view that World Trade Organisation (WTO) intellectual property laws have contributed to the inaccessibility of essential medicines through causing patent ever greening, patent linkages and pharmaceutical company’s monopolies. Consequently, many marginalised groups in South Africa lack access to essential medicines owing to the higher prices charged for such medicines thus violating the right to health, life and other fundamental human rights. The right to health which is the immediate right infringed when there is lack of access to essential medicines form the core theme of this dissertation. This dissertation argues that access to essential medicine is a fundamental part of the right to health protected under international and national human rights instruments. This dissertation further argue that the right to health imposes obligations which requires South African government to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to provide access to essential medicines. The dissertation‘s key contribution is its proposed solutions on how to ensure that patents rules in South Africa are tamed with obligations consistent with the right to health. If properly implemented, these solutions have the potential to give greater specification to the normative commitments imposed by the right to health in the patent claims scenarios.

Nationally and globally the public sector is exposed to new challenges. Tthe most recent is the global pandemic covid-19. The health care system faces new challenges, such as an ageing population which means that more people are in need of more care. The technological and the medical development also means an increased expenditure. As a way of handling the challenges liberal ideas on how the market should work were transferred to the public sector and New Public Management (NPM) was created. Ideas of decentralisation, privatization, demands of cost-effectiveness and the public sector competing with each other on the market are examples of NPM. The purpose of this study was to find out how NPM is expressed in health care law. The countries chosen for this comparative study were Finland, Norway and Sweden, based on a most-similar design. The study was conducted using thematic textual analysis on each country’s health care law.