PATIENTS AND THEIR ACCESS TO ETHICS COMMITTEES IN THE HEALTHCARE ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
PATIENTS AND THEIR ACCESS TO ETHICS COMMITTEES IN THE HEALTHCARE ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

Summary/Abstract: In health care the role of morality is increasingly being imposed, and ethically responsible behavior is seen as a prerequisite for preventing and counteracting many moral risks in society. Ethical codes are mechanisms for controlling moral hazard and responsibility, through which they represent the values and principles of different communities and groups, and create ethics committees. Ethics committees which are set up in healthcare establishments have the purpose of assisting doctors and other medical and non-medical staff in the hospital, the patients and their families and friends to resolve the ethical and legal matters that they face on a daily basis. They serve as a point of reference in resolving disputes in the area of medical ethics. Improving the work of ethics committees in healthcare establishments in the country is only possible by raising awareness of their functions and the benefits of their existence.The aim of the study is to raise the awareness of patients about the ethics committees in the medical establishments in the country to create an objective prerequisite for their more efficient functioning.Materials and Methods: Didactic, sociological and mathematical-statistical methods were used in the study.Results: In the period 01.07.2018 to 01.09.2018. a survey was conducted involving 252 patients, of whom only 10.3% said they were aware of the existence of ethics committees in the medical establishments. 61.9% of respondents said they were not aware of when the ethics committees could refer, while 65.9% said they were not aware of the existence of such committees in thehospital where they were registered and treated as patients. Results show that patient awareness is at a very low level, and opportunities should be sought to reverse this negative trend.Conclusions: The systematic training of patients in the country on ethics committees, their functions and the usefulness of their functioning would facilitate communication between the staff of healthcare establishments, patients and their relatives and would reduce their indiscriminate referral, especially in cases wherethere is no factual or legal complexity It is necessary to create national information stamps covering the territory of the whole country and to improve the patients' awareness of the ethics committees in the medical care national level.

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