Ethical Responsibilities Involved In Treating Patients Abroad

All doctors, including dentists, have to take the Hippocratic oath. This means that they swear that they will do everything in their power to save a human life, and to provide medical care with the utmost precision and in the best circumstances that they can, and they will perform said life saving procedures according to their best abilities.

But how is it with dentists treating patients abroad?

Many of these dentists will never see their patients again, as they live in a different country and there may be no way to hold them accountable for their actions. Many patients thus want something a little bit more substantial than an oath sworn in a room where the patients were not even present.

What To Look For

For patients who are thus inclined, there is some good news. With most clinics who specialize in treating dental tourists, there is some form of official oversight, sometimes even by internationally recognized governing and regulating bodies. These clinics, and the doctors who work in them are thus held responsible, and are identifiable, and can be found and can be held accountable for the work they do. This means that they can be sued, can redo work, can pay for reparations and can also take credit for the work they do on a professional level as well.    

Taking It To The Next Level

Some dental clinics, like Forest and Ray, take these accountability issues to heart, and have stepped their game up to the next level. Understanding how important trust and mutual reliance is in a doctor-patient relationship, the new wave of dental tourism will have to focus on making sure that the dentist can be found by the patient, or that the company employing the dentist can be held accountable for services performed by dentists in their employment, even if a complaint is coming from a foreign country.

There are many ways to do this of course, and one of them is to operate a clinic in the country where you are receiving patients from. Forest and Ray dental practice does just this, with a prestigious clinic in the Bloomsbury area where the dentists employed in Hungary make regular, bimonthly visits. This way, continuity between patients and dentists are not broken, checkups can be made in the host country, and the patient can be sure that their dentist is accountable for their actions. Not to mention that in order to work in the designated host country, the dentist and the clinic need to be judged by the local governing and regulatory bodies. But even if a particular dentist does not do this, the company which employs the services of that dentist should have some way of being contacted by the patients they are responsible for. If they do not, then perhaps you should not rely on their services.

 

images: 1. 2.