ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Medical Association said it has planned to improve ethical medical practice, medico legal, of the healthcare professionals, The Ethiopian Herald learnt.
Association President Dr.Gemechis Mamo said that medical ethics plays critical roles in healthcare through providing the professionals their rights and responsibilities in addition to patient treatment rights issues.
“The current medical ethics governance system is more punitive and lacks a system of promoting primarily preventive social responsibilities. And unethical practices have been observed in medical area that triggered the association to improve the standard.”
The planned improvement benefits health professional associations, hospitals, universities, law enforcement bodies, medical students and the community at large, the President noted.
Association Medical Ethics Committee Chairman and Health Science Asst. Prof Dr. Adamu Addissie also indicated that the new draft project consumed a total cost of eight million Birr for feasibility studies held over the last two years.
This new medical ethics and medico-legal standard will first come to implementation in the selected areas of Oromia, South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP), Addis Ababa City Administration, Amhara and Tigrai States for one year.
Following that it will be transformed to compressive program level by adding issues of medical ethics for the society and the law enforcement bodies to know more how the medical professional treat patients improving the quality of medical services, Dr. Adamu said.
Attorney General, Police Structures and Lawyers will be part of it and provide training to promote collective decisions at times of medical error, he noted.
The association is establishing and strengthening systems for enhancing the capacity and awareness of health care professionals on health care ethics and medico-legal issues through team based approach.
The Ethiopian Herald April 12, 2019
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
