- Target:
- Hong Kong Government and Health Bureau
- Region:
- Hong Kong
Have you been denied medical care by a doctor?
Have you been told there is no need to have follow-up when your illness has not recovered?
Have you been refused of appointments?
Have you been refused of referrals for diagnosis tests, specialists, physiotherapists, or other healthcare providers?
Do you know if a physician selectively denies to treat the patients while still nominally maintaining them in the practice is a form of patient abandonment?
It may not be patients' fault. In many cases, it is observed that this may be an issue of supply and demand (too many patients and shortage of doctors / specialists). Doctors get to choose the conditions or patients they want to treat, despite patients are having existing doctor-patient relationship.
It may be alright for doctors to terminate a doctor-patient relationship if there is valid and reasonable reason, and if the termination of professional relationship is done properly, but it is not alright for doctors to abandon the patient without giving patient prior notice, a grace period, medical records and recommendations.
Currently there is no mechanism in Hong Kong to help these patients. There appear to have no mechanism in Hong Kong to define minimum threshold of the standard of medical service needed to be performed by doctors.
When there is a "refusing to treat" or "refusing to provide medical services" situation, it is often considered the doctor's professional judgment and others do not challenge.
If a doctor does not end the doctor-patient relationship properly, patients could be harmed if they could not find suitable alternate care.
We, the undersigned, call on the Hong Kong government to establish a mechanism to help patients being refused medical services by doctors in HK, and to facilitate the establishment of the following ethical standard and guidelines for Hong Kong doctors.
- A doctor should not selectively deny to treat the patient. Otherwise, the patient is internally abandoned within the active doctor-patient relationship.
- A doctor should give warnings to patients, to allow bilateral communication to work out an alternate solution to avoid ending the professional relationship.
- A doctor should not end the professional relationship based on patient’s complaint. The doctor should do what he/she can do to restore the professional relationship with bilateral communication to remove the cause impacting doctor-patient relationship.
- If ending the professional relationship is the last resort, the doctor should:
1. Have a meeting with patient to explain the reasons why he/she is ending the professional relationship
2. Provide recommendations or referrals to suitable doctors for alternate care
3. Grant a reasonable grace period for patients to find alternate care and to request for clarification of medical records and reports
4. Allow doctor-to-doctor communication if there will be cases requiring clarification of the patient’s medical history
Doctors should avoid instigating and teaming up with solicitors to refuse patient's request for a proper termination and to refuse providing the patient with information and clarification of his/her own medical history.
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The Say "No" to the Practice of Patient Abandonment petition to Hong Kong Government and Health Bureau was written by Hong Kong Medical Ethics and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.