The consideration of ethical issues is a significant but not routine element of looking after patients at Städtisches Klinikum Görlitz. A Clinical Ethics Committee is set up at Städtisches Klinikum Görlitz to discuss problematic ethical cases at the hospital.
Besides relevant legal statutes and social values, the Ethics Committee mainly considers fundamental questions of medical ethics in its work, namely the patient's right to self-determination, the focus of all medical interventions on the well-being and health of the patient, the prevention of damage due to medical actions, as well as the obligation to provide fair treatment.
The committee's work is intended to engender confidence in the management of complex ethical questions in clinical routines and to improve the culture of frank communication on ethical issues at team and clinic levels. Consultancy is provided in controversial ethical matters in order to avoid negative professional judgements or legal consequences. In its consultancy work, the Clinical Ethics Committee supports relevant persons, including patients, families, members or employees of our institution, as well as groups such as ward and clinic teams and patient families facing potentially difficult ethical situations. It contributes to the identification of solutions that everyone involved can support and endorse. The aim of this consultancy is above all to strengthen and focus responsibility, self-determination, trust, respect, consideration and empathy as active values that are upheld in clinic routines.
The Ethics Commission issues fundamental recommendations, as well as ethical decisions on individual medical cases.