At a recent meeting of the Supreme Medical Council, a resolution was adopted to submit a draft of a new Code of Medical Ethics for local government and public consultation. Its amendment is aimed at ensuring high standards of ethical conduct in the medical profession and adapting to new challenges and expectations in the medical field. The work to date on updating the regulations has been summarized by the chairman of the NRL's Committee on Medical Ethics, Artur de Rosier, emphasizing that any interested party will have the opportunity to review the draft and submit their comments and suggestions. It is particularly important to take into account the opinions of both professional medical organizations and patients and the medical community.
Draft Code of Medical Ethics released for public consultation
Published Jan. 30, 2024 13:00
- The current version of the draft is in summary form, containing both the new articles of the Code and those that have been retained from the current legislation. In addition, comments explaining and interpreting the individual articles are also included - these have been compiled from the discussions that accompanied the publication of the proposed changes on the Supreme Medical Council's website. We also relied on the Commission's studies from the previous two terms, which unfortunately did not live to see adoption at the Extraordinary National Medical Congress, which could not be held due to the pandemic. We also used a study edited by Professor Octavian Nawrot and a commentary to the KEL created by the Regional Medical Chamber in Gdansk," said Artur de Rosier, chairman of the NRL Commission on Medical Ethics.
He also explained that some articles are still being drafted - including Article 63 on advertising in the context of the dignity of the medical and dental profession. - This is the kind of article that requires the alignment of our regulations with EU directives. The reason we have not been able to complete this is that we are awaiting the results of a survey conducted by our Central Center for Research, Innovation and Education [the survey can be completed HERE - ed. note]. Thanks to Jack Miarka, chairman of the Supreme Medical Court, we also have studies of rulings on advertising issues from both the NSL and the district courts. And this is another amount of knowledge that will allow us to reliably construct an article describing advertising.
During the consultations, the draft will be revised by the Commission on an ongoing basis. Ultimately, it will consist of individual articles, as in the current version. Then, the final draft will be adopted by resolution at the next meeting of the NRL on March 8, 2024, and forwarded to the delegates to the National Congress of Physicians. From then on, it will be subject to amendments submitted only by the delegates. The final version of the Code will be voted on at the next Congress in May of this year.
The chairman of the NRL's Medical Ethics Committee also noted that a new commentary on the Code is planned.
- I encourage you to have a constructive discussion and share your insights. If you feel that a certain provision currently does not meet expectations or is not relevant to the realities of the doctor's work, please make a substantive suggestion on how we can update it together. Your comments and participation in the consultation are extremely important to our work. As the Committee on Medical Ethics, we are convinced that this is the only way we can create a complete, reliable and appropriate Code of Medical Ethics for today's medical community," appealed Chairman Artur de Rosier.
Comments can be submitted until February 15, 2024 to [email protected].
Source: NIL
