Introduction
Medical and healthcare issues are corporal responsibilities and duties for all parties that are concerned and affected by health care issues that might prevail. In the case of the implantation of the breast implanted on women in the UK, the moral duty of care lies amongst all the parties that were affected by the issue. The National Health Service, the private manufacturers of the implant, the Government administration through the department of health and finally the patients have a moral responsibility too. However, due to the specificity of this matter the moral duty of the various parties extends to some limits (Carrier, 24)
The manufacturers and the implanters of the breast implants have the responsibility of removing or otherwise replacing the implant if the mistake and reason for the doubt of the rupture lays on the negligence of the manufacturer and so it to the implanting hospitals. This is will have to be done at no cost “The idea of the NHS being free at the point of use is contained in its core principles from the original NHS set-up, which are non-negotiable at their root but have variously been open to some interpretation over the years” (Veatch, 66). At this juncture, the government through the department of health has to exercise its responsibility here by ensuring that the bills for the removal or replacement are not taken by the patient. Just like the NHS, the private sectors both in the manufacturing and surgical performance have the moral responsibility and duty to provide its patients after-care services.
As a nation’s representative in the issues of health in general, the department of health and the whole community of Britain have the obligation to regard health care as something of moral right, meaning that every Briton have an enforceable right to health care and hence medication (Mol, 68). As a society, it is our obligation to see that economic challenges of patients are not a barrier to their health care access. It therefore follows that, it is the right of the cosmetic surgery patients to have them being attended at no additional court despite lack of clear responsibility negligence between the manufacturers and the implanters of the cosmetic breasts.
Companies have to view human health as being different from other common goods and services. Health should be viewed to be morally different in the society. Purchasing a Cadillac Seville for each and every Briton cannot be felt as a moral obligation, same for buying an old car for someone to drive it to and from working place and neither could someone feel moral obligation to purchase a television set for someone who cannot afford. “Health care is an important morally different activity altogether” (Ham, 61).
Women who undergo breast implants in private hospitals have the right to receive full care from such hospitals. It is the moral duty of private hospitals to great care of their patients to avoid shifting unnecessary responsibilities to the national health services (NHS). It is the moral duty of the private hospitals to provide high post-surgery care to their patients as required by the health policy. As with the NHS, private clinics are expected to provide care to the women they remove implants. This will ensure that women receive care from the hospitals in which they receive PIP implant removal. The shift of responsibilities from private hospitals to NHS will reduce. “The NHS has further agreed a formal constitution which sets out the legal rights and responsibilities of the NHS, its staff, and users of the service and makes additional non-binding pledges regarding many key aspects of its operations” (Carrier, 99). This also ensures that the taxpayer is not given the bill, which was supposed to be for such hospitals.
Most of the private hospitals operate for business gains only. After the operation, the patient is not attended to. This calls for the government to intervene in such situations. However if this private hospitals are allowed to operate on their own they will undermine the health of the patient. More so, because they operate as business oriented hospitals they will robe the taxpayer of their money .This is because they will double bill the patient. They will ask them to pay for the bill at the time of PIP implant removal and when the patient is going for the subsequent check-ups. It is the moral responsibility of private hospitals to provide quality treatments of the patients as required by the health policies (Veatch, 122).
In is reported that in some private hospitals doctors are too careless when dealing with surgical operations. For example, it is noted that in Mount Alvernia in Guildford a surgeon operated a patient without gloves while bloodstain were all over his shirt (Ruger, 153). Another case is reported from that hospital also that a doctor did not attend a child for seven hours although the child’s health condition was deteriorating. This carelessness of private sectors occurs because there is no body, which oversees their complaints.
It is reported that the complaints are dealt with privately by this private hospitals. If a problem occurs in such private hospitals, the patients will get problems; as such, hospitals may not have insurance to compensate for the damages caused to the patient. The private hospitals need to get insurance covers for the patients to be treated and get compensation in case there is a peril in the hospitals. The private hospitals have moral responsibility to care for the patients from the time of operation up to the time they recover. The NHS should ensure that private hospitals under take the operation as per the health policies (Ham, 207).
According to the case presented the private companies responsible for provision and implanting of the breasts in women. This directly means that they are liable to any wrong effects caused by their incompetence delivery of services they have been paid for. it makes no sense for them to claim of inability to finance for the harm caused from their poor delivery of service. With the risk having already taken place, the patients are at great risk of infection of other related diseases (Veatch, 173).
On the contrary, it is always the duty of the National Health Service to ensure all citizens have the best type of services ever. Although it is the private health providers are obliged to have attained the set standards and skills to ensure that the transplant operations are carried out successfully, it is the legal duty of the N.H.S. to check and ascertain that the any health provider in the health world provides quality services health service to the patients according to the national standards set by the government (Carrier, 165)
The expert group selected in the breast implant staunchly proves that the well-being of the women is their first rule that is most adhered to (Ruger, 153). In regards to the National Health department, the NHS legally owes its patients a duty of care after providing services to them. The NHS should fully replace the implants if and only if the original operation was conducted by the NHS itself.
The NHS is supposed to offer accommodative service to make the patients feel at ease and ensure that their patients feel completely at home. Ensuring that the patients appreciate the services given to them is the aim of the NHS striving so hard to serve its patients. There has been an increased emergence of unstandardized firms entering the market of late (Mol, 171). This has tremendously increased the cases reported to the national Department of Health. Effective rules and regulations have to be set to ensure only the qualified and reliable health organisation allowed to venture in delivery and operation of breast surgery for breast transplants. Set test should be placed to evaluate what each member is capable of and his field work for the purpose of referencing (Ham, 307)
As far as all these are concerned, the NHS has a responsibility to carryout cosmetic surgery for women who first received the implants from them and has the responsibility to do so for those who received from other private sectors. The NHS organizational structure requires that it guarantee quality services to its patients and hence the whole society because they are not specific on who their patients are. However, the NHS has to liaise with those private sectors that are unable to perform the operation because it is the responsibility and duty of the Briton society to see its people being healthy and having trust in the health system. The NHS having vowed to provide quality health services, it is thus charged with the moral obligation of performing the cosmetic surgery irrespective of the manufacturer of the initial implant. The Kant doctrine of moral ethics will apply.
Works Cited
Carrier J, Kendall I. Health and the NHS. London: GlassHouse, 2005. Print.
Ham, Christopher. Health Policy in Britain: The Politics and Organisation of the National Health Service. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.
Mol, Annemarie. The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Ruger, Jennifer P. Health and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
Veatch, Robert M. "Models for ethical medicine in a revolutionary age." Hastings Center Report, 2007. Print.
