ETHICS IN MEDICINE

1. ETHICS IN MEDICINE

2. Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and wellbeing. To justify that trust, we as a profession have a duty to maintain a good standard of practice and care and to show respect for human life

3. In particular as a doctor you must:

4. Make the care of your patient your first concern.

5. 2 Treat every patient politely and considerately.

6. 3. Respect patients� dignity  and privacy.

7. 4. Listen to patients and respect their view.

8. 5. Give patients information in a way they can understand.

9. 6. Respect the rights of patients to be fully involved in decision about their care.

10. 7. Keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date.

11. 8. Recognize the limits of your professional competence.

12. 9. be honest and trustworthy.

13. 10. Respect and protect confidential information.

14. 11. make sure that your personal beliefs do not prejudice your patients� care.

15. 12. Act quickly to protect patients from risk if you have good reason to believe that you or a colleague may not be fit to practice.

16. 13. Avoid abusing your position as a doctor.

17. 14. Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients� interests.

18. In all these matters: you must never discriminate unfairly against your patients or colleagues. And you must always be prepared to justify your actions to them .

19. Finally Always opt for the cheapest effective treatment

20. Always opt for the best treatment

21. Keep this confidence

22. What is my purpose?

23. What is my priority?

24. Treat this patient rather than the patient

25. Respect patients wishes

26. Maximize autonomy

27. Always strive to do the very best for one�s individual patient

28. Principles of confidentiality

29. 1. Patients have a right to expect that you will not disclose any personal information which you learn during the course of your professional duties, unless they give permission.

30. 2. When you are responsible for confidential information you must make sure that the information is effectively protected against improper disclosure when it is disposed of , stored, transmitted or received.

31. 3. When patients give consent to disclosure of information about them, you must make sure they understand what will be disclose, the reasons for disclosure and the likely consequences;

32. 4. You must make sure that patients are informed whenever information about them is likely to be disclosed to others involved in their health care , and that they have the opportunity to withhold permission,

33. 5. You must respect requests by patients that information should not be disclosed to third parties, save in exceptional circumstances

34. 6. If you disclose confidential information you should release only as much information as is necessary for the purpose

35. 7. You must make sure that health workers to whom you disclose information understand that it is given to them in confidence which they must respect.

36. 8. If you decide to disclose confidential information, you must be prepared to explain and justify your decision.