Analysis

Patients' charters and health responsibilities

Nuffield Council on Bioethics, London WC1B 3JS

We all have responsibility for our health, the health of others, and to the organisations that provide health care. But, as Harald Schmidt describes, specifying and formalising these duties can create ethical problems

The BMA recently called for a charter setting out the responsibilities patients have within the National Health Service and what patients can expect from the NHS.¹ The proposal raises questions about the scope, specificity, and status of such a charter. Should it be legally binding or simply set out aspirations? How many and what kind of responsibilities should be included? I examine how initiatives in Scotland, Germany, and the United States have dealt with these questions and look at the ethical tensions raised.

The BMA's discussion paper refers to patient responsibilities and a patient charter. But at its annual representative meeting 2007 delegates also resolved with an overwhelming majority the need for a charter that "focuses on the individual's responsibility both in health and illness" (motion 25). The focus on patient responsibilities is too narrow, and in the following I will therefore use the term health responsibilities to cover the . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Schmidt, H (2009). Just health responsibility. J. Med. Ethics 35: 21-26 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Buyx, A M (2008). Personal responsibility for health as a rationing criterion: why we don't like it and why maybe we should. J. Med. Ethics 34: 871-874 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Schmidt, H. (2008). Bonuses as Incentives and Rewards for Health Responsibility: A Good Thing?. J Med Philos 33: 198-220 [Abstract] [Full text]  

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