BMJ 1994;309:125 (9 July)

Letters

Use of resources needs to be addressed

EDITOR,--Simon Finfer and colleagues' article and the accompanying responses seem to raise two distinct issues, which in my view should be kept separate: the wishes of the patient (and issues concerning consent) and the "moral" issue of use of resources. The only respondent who seems to have tackled the issue of use of resources is Michael A Jones; doctors need to consider this increasingly relevant question in the world of the internal market.

Had Finfer and colleagues' other patients been denied the use of resources required by the authors' first (surviving) patient, and had one of those patients or his or her representatives chosen to sue for lack of adequate care, they would, presumably, in the first instance have sued the health authority or trust, not Finfer and colleagues. It is interesting to conjecture how the trust might have chosen to respond. It could have argued that it was up . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Managing patients who refuse blood transfusions: an ethical dilemma: Major trauma in two patients refusing blood transfusion
S Finfer, S Howell, J Miller, K Willett, and J Wilson-MacDonald
BMJ 1994 308: 1423-26. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Brace, J W A, Cooper, P D (1994). Managing patients who refuse blood transfusions Register of willing consultants exists. BMJ 309: 475a-475 [Full text]  
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