Dr Chris Sirrs, CHM postdoctoral researcher, has had a chapter he has written with Martin Gorsky at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, published in the latest volume of the Yearbook for the History of Global Development.

This is based partly on research he undertook at the World Bank archives in Washington DC and interviews with former Bank staff and explores the rationale behind the Bank’s controversial promotion of user fees for health services from the 1980s. The chapter is published open access.

Full citation: Martin Gorsky and Christopher Sirrs, ‘The World Bank’s Advocacy of User Fees in Global Health, c.1970–1997: More Ideology than Evidence?’, in Health and Development, ed. Iris Borowy and Bernard Harris, Yearbook for the History of Global Development 2 (De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2023), 277–316, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111015583-011/html

Congratulations to Dr Chris Sirrs, CHM Research Fellow, who has had an article published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Assessment

Christopher Sirrs, ‘Taking Action against Medical Accidents: A Brief History of AvMA and Clinical Risk Management in the NHS’, Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, 30 October 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/25160435221135120.

Abstract

Established in 1982, Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA)—originally named Action for Victims of Medical Accidents—was effectively the first charity in Britain dedicated to ‘patient safety’. This article provides a historical analysis of the origins and work of AvMA, situating its background in the medical negligence ‘crisis’ of the 1970s and 1980s, growing consumerism in healthcare, and the significant barriers to justice patients confronted following a clinical incident. It also explores AvMA's impacts on evolving attitudes towards patient harm and safety in the NHS. The article asserts that in addition to supporting patients and campaigning for changes in legal procedures, AvMA played an instrumental role in raising the political profile of adverse health events (‘medical accidents’). By supporting claimant solicitors and increasing their chances of legal success, AvMA contributed to the rising tide of negligence claims, which incentivised NHS trusts and health authorities to introduce clinical risk management (CRM). By 2000, CRM was being framed as part of a broader mission to improve quality and safety in healthcare, and AvMA was recognised as a key stakeholder in the new patient safety agenda

Exciting news this month sees the Manchester University Press publication of Posters, Protests and Prescriptions, a collection of essays in relation to the Centre’s Cultural History of the NHS project, edited by former CHM members and researchers on this project Jenny Crane and Jane Hand.

And more good news is that this book is available through open access due to the support of the Wellcome Trust.