Providing healthcare outside working hours: moral and legal aspects

Inga Kudeikina (Corresponding Author), Marina Loseviča, Aigars Laizāns, Natalya Gutorova

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    Abstract

    It would often be in the public interest for persons with special knowledge, including the so-called liberal professionals, to exercise their skills voluntarily, as long as a need for their services arises: for example, a healthcare practitioner
    would provide treatment to anyone in need of emergency care, architects would act as soon as there is a mention of
    a crack in the load-bearing wall of an apartment building and judges would judge a court on holidays if need arises.
    But the legal duty to act can be demanded from those who are legally assigned this task only. For all the stakeholders,
    legal certainty in healthcare is an issue of major importance. To contribute to this aspect, this study aims to detect the
    legal and ethical framework of the medical practitioner’s obligation to provide treatment outside of working hours. The
    scientific literature, case-law, legal acts and court judgements were studied; the analytic, doctrinal, comparative and
    modelling methods were applied; the general legal norm interpretation methods were used. The authors conclude that
    outside of working hours, medical practitioners are exempt from their legal responsibilities, are guided by moral norms
    and general citizens’ obligations only and have the right to refuse to provide professional healthcare services. The
    inconsistency among legal scholars and legal and medical practitioners concerning the duties of healthcare professionals during their rest time was detected. The recommendations are proposed to ensure legal certainty and achieve
    consentaneity among the stakeholders.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)18-23
    JournalSocrates
    Volume26
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2023

    Keywords*

    • medical practitioners’ rights and duties
    • healthcare
    • soft law
    • legal certainty
    • work ethics
    • labour rights
    • working time
    • rest breaks

    Field of Science*

    • 5.5 Law

    Publication Type*

    • 1.2. Scientific article included in INT1 or INT2 category journal of ERIH database

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