The theme of the 2022 conference was “Quality of healthcare. Can the law help to guarantee safe and reliable care for the patient?” Dr. Oliver Quick’s paper, in the medical liability and complaints procedures session, explored the scope, appropriateness, and impact of ‘healthcare safety crimes’ for improving safety and wellbeing for both patients and professionals.

Little is known about how these regulatory criminal offences, enforced by the Care Quality Commission, operate in practice, and this paper sought to evaluate the design and enforcement of these offences. In particular, it explored their potential for ensuring organisations change policies and practices around levels of staffing, training and infection control to minimise the risk of patient harm.

“This was a stimulating conference with speakers from a wide range of European countries. It was great to present and debate my current research and also learn about exciting ongoing projects across Europe which will enrich my teaching on our LLM in Health, Law and Society and LLB Medical Law unit for next year.”

The conference, hosted by the University of Ghent, is organised by the European Association of Health Law which aims to strengthen the health and human rights interface throughout Europe, and to serve as an indispensable source of advice and guidance for the future of health law and policies in Europe. The next European Association of Health Law Conference will be held in Spring 2024.