personal choice and autonomy are not options in a pandemic where the foolish actions of the few ignoramuses can harm the greater majority
That's your personal opinion.
I have not seen anything from my college to suggest that personal choice and autonomy are not options for patients in a pandemic. Dont see any directive from SMC either.
The law makers can put in restrictions and rules to cause inconvenience but it is not a directive for Drs.
No one has basically told Drs ok you can go tell patients they have no choice have to vaccinate! If dont vaccinate.....
The other thing is also what what MPA and CMPA say. Sometimes govt says something but the Medical Malpractice people will say hang on hang on.....
This happened in Ontario when the ON health authority made it some ruling that patients would be transferred out of hospital to make way for bed space for covid-19 cases.
CMPA said something about Drs still have a duty to maintain patient safety and advocate if they feel the patients still require in patient care.
https://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/en/news/2021/ontarios-new-emergency-orders-implications-for-physicians
Ontario’s new emergency orders – Implications for physicians
April 15, 2021
On April 9th, 2021 the Ontario government issued two new emergency orders to assist hospitals with the surge of new COVID-19 cases requiring admission and ICU support across the province.
One of those emergency orders is a transfer order,
enabling hospitals to transfer patients to another facility without patient consent. The order is intended to help hospitals manage capacity and distribute patients across the province in order to optimize the availability of critical care in areas most impacted by the pandemic.
The other order relates to re-deployment of LHIN and Ontario Health employees and would not typically apply to most Ontario physicians.
This update focuses on the order related to hospital transfer.
Ontario’s transfer order provides hospitals with the ability to move patients in an effort to manage a surge. It is not an order to implement a critical care triage protocol in major surge conditions that can otherwise guide physicians on the allocation of scarce critical care resources among patients within the hospital. The CMPA has called on the Ontario government to provide medico-legal protections for physicians and other providers if required to implement such a protocol.
Obligations for hospitals
The regulations impose obligations on the hospital to ensure that any transfer without consent
- is necessary to respond to a demand for critical care resources due to COVID-19
- will enable the hospital (or assist another hospital) to manage its critical care resources
- will reduce foreseeable risk of serious bodily harm to a person
The regulations require that reasonable efforts be taken to obtain consent from the patient (or the patient’s substitute decision maker).
Obligations for physicians
In order to effect the transfer, an attending clinician (who will often be a physician) must be satisfied that the receiving hospital can provide the required care and the
transfer will not compromise the patient’s medical condition.
The receiving hospital must be prepared to admit the patient and the admitting order of a clinician at the receiving hospital (most often a physician) will be required.
Physicians involved in a patient transfer without consent will need to:
- make a determination about whether a patient can be transferred without compromising the patient’s medical condition
- take reasonable steps to be satisfied the receiving hospital can provide the care the patient requires
- work with the receiving hospital to ensure the patient will be admitted
- follow any hospital policies and procedures established for this process
- document all decisions in the patient’s chart
Physicians at the receiving hospital will also need to work with the transferring hospital to determine whether the patient can be admitted and should follow all hospital policies and procedures established for this process