• Last minute: Coronavirus in Spain, last minute: Italy reduces the daily death toll but infections are rebounding
  • Health: coronavirus symptoms, treatment and how to avoid contagion
  • Covid-19 map of the coronavirus in Spain: evolution of cases by autonomous community

In full judicialization of the lack of protection material for health personnel and legal doubts about the doctor's obligation to work in these circumstances, the Collegiate Medical Organization (WTO), the highest representative body of physicians at the national level, has published a document where it is clear that its duty is to attend to the patient , as a priority, despite the risks.

" The doctor owes loyalty to the patient and has to assist him, he can never abandon him, even if it involves a personal risk that must be minimized. At the same time, he must protect himself and others from the spread of the disease with everything have available. " In this way, the WTO settles the reasonable doubt , spread among health workers, about whether, in the event of a failure by the Administration to provide the professional with the necessary protection for his work, he could leave his job. The answer is simple: no .

The WTO's Central Commission of Ethics, which signs the text, supports this reasoning based on what is found in various articles of the Code of Ethics of the profession on the care of patients in "exceptional circumstances". In this sense, it makes clear the position that the physicians must follow at all times.

Article 5.3 of the Code states: "The doctor's main loyalty is that which he owes to his patient and his health must take precedence over any other convenience . The doctor cannot deny assistance for fear that the disease or the circumstances of the patient pose a personal risk. "

Juan José Rodríguez Sendín, president of the Central Commission of Ethics , defends the document and explains that the situations that are being addressed are very different in their severity, with which "it is not as easy as applying a standard" , because there is no homogeneity in the circumstances in which it works. Regarding the lack of protection material for toilets, he values ​​that "what happens is not voluntary, nobody can say: they don't give me what I need, because there isn't or there isn't enough." For this reason, the healthcare professional must act "responsibly" .

Another article, 6.2 insists: "The doctor will not abandon any patient who needs their care, even in situations of catastrophe or epidemic , unless they are forced to do so by the competent authority or there is an imminent and unavoidable life risk for their person . Will volunteer to collaborate in the tasks of sanitary aid . " This vital "imminent and inevitable" risk refers to the fact that "if the physician has high-risk factors, such as advanced age or comorbidity, he may legitimately feel exempt from occupying positions and performing high-risk tasks."

Failure to comply with this obligation of assistance in a pandemic situation does not only threaten the profession's ethics. The document recalls that the penal code includes the crime of omission of relief.

"You are required to act when you must, taking responsibility if you commit acts of omission or even if your action is carried out in an improper way. That is, you are not only responsible for giving help but for doing it correctly so as not to cause harm . It is obvious that a doctor who is not adequately protected due to recklessness or lack of personal protective equipment can be infected as well as infect others ", the text maintains.

In the document, the Deontology admits that the doctor who is in the first line of defense of this pandemic is "putting his health and his own life at risk". For this reason, Sendín points out that "their actions require more than ever responsibility, prudent handling of uncertainty, caution and protection." And, of course, he asks "to have protective equipment for the doctors and health professionals involved."

He explains that the document leaves to each doctor's discretion the decision based on assessing whether "the risk he is running is acceptable" , while warning of the obligation " not to deny help to any patient ". In relation to the regulation on occupational risk prevention, which would legitimize the health worker not to carry out their work due to the lack of protection, Rodríguez Sendín does not consider that it can be applied in this case and reiterates «if it were as easy as applying a law. .. ".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Science and health
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Spain
  • Health
  • Infectious diseases

HealthSpain with 3,434 deaths already surpasses China

Global coronavirus pandemic, now what?

SaludFrom the residences: "The last ones leave us: without masks or tests"