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THE
Philippine Medical Association (PMA) is amending its
code of ethics amid various issues involving physicians
and other medical practitioners.
Rey
Santos, incoming PMA president, said the amended code of
ethics is expected to be approved when physicians come
for their general assembly next month.
“We will
submit the amendments to the Professional Regulation
Commission after the general assembly approves it,”
Santos said in a telephone interview.
Admitting that the image of physicians has been
“tainted” because of the “unfortunate event” in Cebu,
where a rectal surgery of a male patient was posted on
YouTube, Santos noted the importance of strengthening
the ethical guidelines for physicians.
Santos
said the behavior of the medical team that operated on a
39-year-old patient with a stuck aerosol bottle in his
rectum was “highly unethical.”
“It
should not be tolerated,” he added.
Santos
noted that the surgeon who performed the procedure is
“in-charge” of what was happening inside the operating
room, adding that the giggling among medical staff that
was shown on the video was “not a usual attitude” at the
operating room (OR).
The
incident sparked into a scandal, as videos of the
operation showed one of the staff holding the bottle and
aiming it on those inside the OR while countless camera
phones take images and video footage of the surgery.
He added
that while the patient’s case was “unusual,” “it was not
an excuse” for the medical team to behave
unprofessionally while treating a person.
“Basically, the issue here is respect for human dignity.
The patient was very helpless at that time,”
Santos
said.
He added
that medical students are also aware of the ethical
practice of the profession because it is taught in
schools. One of the interns present during the operation
at the
Vicente Sotto Memorial
Medical Center
was identified by the hospital’s investigating team as
the one responsible for the YouTube clip.
The
amended code of ethics, according to Santos, will also
strongly lay down the guidelines against the practice of
advertising products by some physicians.
Ang
Ladlad, the national organization of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender Filipinos, slammed the
physicians and nurses involved in the rectal operation
of a gay patient that was later uploaded in YouTube.
“This is
a violation of the patient-doctor confidentiality that
is part of the code of ethics of a medical
practitioner,” said Danton Remoto, chairman of Ang
Ladlad and associate professor of English at the
Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University.
“What
rubs salt on the patient’s dignity was the fact that the
doctors and nurses were shown saying antigay statements
while making fun of the sedated patient. In this case,
it is not the patient, but the doctors, who is sick,”
Remoto said in a statement.
“We laud
the investigation being done by the hospital. However,
we would like to stress that the victim was made to sign
a piece of paper he did not read nor was it explained to
him.” Ang Ladlad will offer psychological counseling to
the victim, as well as help his lawyer, Guiller Ceniza,
pursue the case in court, the statement added. |
