BMJ  2005;331:227-229 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.227

Education and debate

Ethics and the structures of health care in the European countries in transition: hospital ethics committees in Croatia

¹ Andrija tampar School of Public Health, Medical School, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, ² University Medical Centre, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, Netherlands

Hospital ethics committees are a recent phenomenon in countries in transition. Croatia's example shows they are staffed mainly by older doctors with no specialist knowledge of ethical issues. The importance of professional relationships and the educational function of ethics committees have been ignored

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Healthcare structures, organisations, and institutions have ethical characteristics that are about relationships. These groups are composed of individuals and groups of people with moral obligations. Healthcare structures embody particular organisational cultures that, good or bad, affect people and reflect values. Also, healthcare structures have certain purposes, and they can be evaluated and held accountable whether or not they fulfill their purposes, particularly those affecting and effecting health care. For these reasons, healthcare structures have ethical attributes, and ethical analysis of the healthcare system could be performed.¹

We use hospitals ethics committees in Croatia to explore the issues connected with structural ethics in healthcare institutions in the countries in transition, and we present it as an example that applies also to other countries in transition. We chose hospital ethics committees because we believe that such an analysis can explain structural ethics issues in a healthcare system.

Hospitals and structural ethics

Hospitals are healthcare structures made . . . [Full text of this article]

European countries in transition, ethics, and healthcare structures

Croatian ethics committes and healthcare structures

Survey and results

A bureaucratic approach

Conclusions

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