Page 157 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

5.4 Rise of Independent Healthcare Regulation.

In this changing environment, it is not surprising that healthcare regulations are increasing steadily

in most countries (Rego et al. 2010).

As suggested by Kieran Walshe (2003), it remains to be seen to what extent these regulations

achieve their objectives, namely performance improvement and ensuring fair competition.

Moreover, there is some dispute regarding which conceptual framework for healthcare regulation
is to be adopted because regulation is traditionally regarded as professional self-regulation in the

healthcare sector.

Self-regulation of physicians is important due to its impact on professional standards of care, from

a social and economic perspective; however, self-regulation does not always achieve its goal of
effectively supervising a professional practice.

Although medicine has strict ethical and clinical standards, there are often crucial flaws in its

internal mechanisms of control.

Often, it is precisely the medical practice itself that should be externally regulated.

Therefore, the need for regulating its social and economic dimensions extends well beyond

professional self-regulation (Clarke 2016).

Regulatory capture (in the sense of the regulator being influenced in its decisions by a third party)

is frequently at stake because the control of a professional practice by one’s peers may lead to
conflicts of interest.

Further, the self-interest of the profession may preclude the effective judgment of deviant

behavior. Health care organizations have weak internal structures of control.

135 Academic Year 2025/2026