Professional Obligations of Medical Professionals

A man is knocked down by a bus near Sion station and carried to the nearest private hospital. The desk asks for a deposit, and the paperwork takes twenty minutes while he bleeds. Must the doctor treat first and sort out payment later? The answer comes from a mix of the Constitution, court decisions, statutes and professional codes, which together define what every registered doctor owes to patients, to the profession and to the State. This topic pulls them together.

In two minutes

A registered medical practitioner owes the patient a duty of reasonable care and skill, a duty to give emergency aid, to obtain informed consent, to keep confidences and records, to report what the law requires, and to practise honestly within competence; breach can lead to civil, criminal and professional consequences.

The rest of this chapter

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