Dr Kathy Liddell (LML Director) has been quoted in an article by the NY Times about the UK’s approach towards medical rationing in relation to Coronavirus.
The UK has an established history of offering public guidance on medical treatment at the of life, including some high level guidance for pandemics. Guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care in 2012 recommended that guidelines be prepared – prior to a pandemic – with public input and scrutiny in order to guide healthcare professionals in their efforts to use scarce resources (such as ventilators) fairly and for patients with greater chances of survival.
On 3 April 2020, David D. Kirkpatrick and Benjamin Mueller wrote in the NY Times about the reluctance of health authorities in the UK to release public guidance on how resource allocations will be made in light of COVID-19. They note that, while the criteria for deciding which patients should not receive live-saving interventions has already been drafted, the Government has elected to shelve said guidance for fear of political backlash. The absence of official, government-sanctioned guidance raises concerns about practitioners improvising their own criteria, potentially disadvantaging populations of patients in vulnerable categories, such as the disabled or the elderly.
Dr Liddell spoke to the legal dimension of such decision making. She argues that British courts should have the opportunity to rule on triage policies in a test case before they are rolled out. Saving as many lives as possible is a worthy goal, but this principle can occlude the consideration of patients’ legal rights—rights that are not suspended in a crisis. So even if the principle is used as the primary touchstone, it should be: ‘save the most lives whilst respecting the legal rights of the patient.’
The full article can be found here:
Dr Liddell’s contribution to the COVID-19 discourse is a further demonstration of LML’s commitment to utilising its expertise during this rapidly evolving situation. LML has released a publicly accessible compilation of useful literature on the legal and ethical issues facing front-line healthcare professionals in light of COVID-19. Further information about this can be found here.