Abstract
It has frequently been contended that economic considerations have no place in decisions about the medical treatment of patients. If doctors are to recommend the most appropriate course of action for the patient being treated the relative cost of different therapeutic regimens should not influence the choice. For those holding this view any attempt by the doctor to consider the efficiency of treatment would contravene the ethics which should govern the doctor-patient relationship. Some of those adhering to this principle of clinical freedom are prepared to allow some place for the consideration of efficiency in the use of health care resources, but see this as the responsibility of managers not doctors. This separates resource allocation decisions from clinical decisions in a very artificial way, given that one of the major resources used by the health care system is the time of clinicians.
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Hutton, J., Maynard, A.K. (1992). Is It Ethical To Be Efficient?. In: Bromham, D.R., Dalton, M.E., Jackson, J.C., Millican, P.J.R. (eds) Ethics in Reproductive Medicine. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1895-4_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1895-4_12
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