Long term finance programmes in the banking industry: the case of Islamic & traditional Arab banks

This research draws empirically a clear and comprehensive picture of long term programme finance in the Islamic and traditional Arab banking industries: Islamic banking industry is examined through musharaka, mudaraba, murabaha and muzaraha and; traditional banking industry is examined through lending. It pioneers and lays out the foundation of the research in this area. A survey was conducted on long term finance programmes in both the Islamic and traditional banking industries. A total of 109 banks were surveyes, 34 of which were Islamic banks. One main obstacle encountered in the research investigation was collecting the required primary data from banks. The research investigates questions related to the differences between groups and subgroups of banks: a) Islamic banks and traditional banks; b) Islamic banks located in Islamic economies and Islamic banks located in non Islamic economies; c) commercial banks and specialised banks; d) younger banks and older banks and e) smaller banks and larger banks. The findings of the research investigation suggests that there is generally a lack of differences amongst groups and subgroups of banks in terms of size, growth, ownership and long term finance programme performance. The performance is determined in terms of proportion of resources, involvement, required rate of return and the degree of success in long term finance programmes. Apart from the basis of their operations, Islamic banks differ from traditional banks in their age, growth, involvement and the required rate of return on long term finance programmes. The research investigates the practice and the importance of four Islamic finance politics namely; musharaka, mudaraba, murabaha and muzaraha to long term finance in the Islamic banking industry. The findings suggest that musharaka, mudaraba and murabaha are equally important: muzaraha is the least used in the long term finance programmes in the Islamic banking industry. The analysis of 80 hypotheses lead to 18 being accepted and 62 being rejected. Although some hypotheses are more important than others the findings suggest that the literature of banking is in bad need for further empirical research investigations

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely