Crisis Patient Prioritisation and the Law: The Pandemic Experience

The allocation of scarce health resources remains a persistent and critical challenge for global health systems. The Covid-19 pandemic brought this issue to the forefront on an unprecedented scale, testing even the most robust health systems of industrialised nations. Depletion of resources, particularly in intensive care units, forced daily triage decisions. Each country, facing its unique circumstances, had to devise its own solution to the sudden calamity. While universal principles applied, the book presents eleven comprehensive national reports from Europe, North and South America, and Africa. These reports are structured to facilitate a nuanced comparison of individual strategies as well as overarching systematic differences. In addition to the national perspectives, the book includes a dedicated theoretical chapter analysing the legal-ethic foundations and limits of crisis patient prioritisation.

As the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic wanes in the public eye and among stakeholders, there is a concerning lack of willingness to extract vital lessons for future crises. Nevertheless, neglecting the insights gained from the events of 2020 and 2021 would be a grave error. The book aspires to preserve to lessons of the pandemic, offering valuable insights to those who seek better preparation for potential future crises.

Coverage includes the following: 

• Legal-ethical grounds of crisis patient prioritisation
• National reports:
• Austria
• Brazil
• Czech Republic
• France
• Italy
• Portugal
• Serbia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Switzerland
• United States of America
• Comparative concluding remarks

Features: 

• Analysis of the approaches to crisis patient prioritisation taken by legislators as well as medical bodies in various countries during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Comparison of underlying fundamental principles, similarities, and differences between the various national approaches
• Analysis of the ethical-legal grounds and context of patient prioritisation, including the influence of normative ethical theories and their practical application

 Benefits: 

• Analyse and compare different approaches to crisis patient prioritisation taken by various jurisdictions around the globe during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Understand underlying similarities and differences in various approaches to crisis patient prioritisation
• Understand the deeper ethical and legal context of crisis patient prioritisation
• Enable the use of acquired knowledge and understanding to analyse possible legal, executive, and medical options in case of a future large-scale health crisis