Should doctors have the right to refuse a patient?
ASKED by Tina T on March 7, 2008 - 10:23am
We hear a lot about patient rights and what's best for the patient. But a conversation I overheard yesterday got me thinking about doctors' rights. Does the doctor have the right to refuse a patient? If so, under what circumstances? And should doctors be offered incentives to take on patients that may be considered high-risk? Is that 'good medicine'?
Comments
Doctors have an obligation to help their patients but in light of the insane amount of litigation these days, can someone blame a doctor for not wanting to treat, say, a pregnant woman who takes drugs or drinks/smokes in her pregnancy? Is it over the top to think she would sue if her baby is born ill? I don't think so.
What about the heart patient who continues to smoke or the morbidly obese patient who refuses to comply with instructions after gastric bypass surgery?
Patients have to be at least as responsible as the doctors who treat them! A doctor is only effective if the patient she treats complies with treatment.
So if a patient is non-compliant or combative about treatment, then yes, I would say a doctor has a right to refuse treatment.
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