Board of Medicine

Code of Ethics
Article I GENERAL PRINCIPLES Section 1. The primary objectives of the practice of medicine is service to mankind irrespective or race, creed or political affiliation. In its practice, reward of financial gain should be a subordinate consideration. Section 2. On entering his profession a physician assumes the obligation of maintaining the honorable tradition that confers upon him the well deserved title of friend of man. He should cherish a proper pride in his calling, onduct himself as a gentleman, and endeavor to exalt the standards and extend the sphere of usefulness of his profession. He should adhere to the generally accepted principles of the International Code of Medical Ethics adopted by the Third General Assembly of the World Medical Association at London, England in October, 1949 as part of his professional conduct. Section 3. In his relation to the state and to the community, a physician should fulfill his civic duties as a good citizen, conform to the laws and endeavor to cooperate with the proper authorities in the due application of medical knowledge for the promotion of the common welfare. Section 4. In his relation to the state and to the community, a physician should fulfill his civic duties as a good citizen, conform to the laws and endeavor to cooperate with the proper authorities in the due application of medical knowledge for the promotion of the common welfare. Section 5. With respect to the relation of the physician to his colleagues, he should safeguard their legitimate interests, reputation, and dignity-bearing always in mind the golden rule whatever ye would that man should do unto you, do you even so to them. Section 6. The ethical principles actuating and governing a clinic or a group of physicians are exactly the same as those applicable to the individual physician. Specialties in the various fields of medical sciences are not exempt from the application of these principles. Article II DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO THEIR PATIENTS Section 1. A physician should attend to his patients faithfully and conscientiously. He should secure for them all possible benefits that may depend upon his professional skill and care. As the sole tribunal to adjudge the physicians failure to fulfill his obligation to his patients is, in most cases, his own conscience, and violation of this rule on his part is discreditable and inexcusable. Section 2. A physician is free to choose whom he will serve. He may refuse calls, or other medical services for reasons satisfactory to his professional conscience. He should, however, always respond to any request for his assistance in an emergency. Once he undertakes a case, he should not abandon nor neglect it. If for any reason he wants to be released from it, he should announce his desire previously, giving sufficient time or opportunity to the patient or his family to secure another medical attendant.

Section 3. In cases of emergency, wherein immediate action is necessary, a physician should administer at least first aid treatment and then refer the patient to a more qualified and competent physician if the case does not fall within his particular line. Section 4. In serious cases which are difficult to diagnose and treat, or when the circumstances of the patient or the family so demand or justify, the attending physician should seek the assistance of his colleagues in consultation. Section 5. A physician must exercise good faith and strict honesty in expressing his opinion as to the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the cases under his care. Timely notice of the serious tendency of the disease should be given to the family or friends of the patients, and even to the patient himself if such information will serve the best interest of the patient and his family. It is highly unprofessional to conceal the gravity of the patients condition, or to pretend to cure or alleviate a disease for the purpose of persuading the patient to take or continue the course of treatment, knowing that such assurance is without accepted basis. It is also unprofessional to exaggerate the condition of the patient. Section 6. The medical practitioner should guard as a sacred trust anything that is confidential or private in nature that he may discover or that may be communicated to him in his professional relation with his patients, even after their death. He should never divulge this confidential information, or anything that may reflect upon the moral character of the person involved, except when it is required in he interest of justice, public health, or public safety. Section 7. The medical profession not being a business and service its primary concern, a physician should not charge exorbitant or excessive fees. In determining the amount of the fee, he should always consider the financial status of the patient, the nature of the case, the time consumed, his professional standing and skill and the average fees charged by physicians of the same standing in the same locality. Article III DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO THE COMMUNITY Section 1. Physician should cooperate with the proper authorities in the enforcement of sanitary laws and regulations and in the education of the people on matters relating to the promotion of the health of the individual as well as of the community. They should enlighten the public on the dangers of communicable diseases and other preventable diseases, and on all the measures for their prevention and cure, particularly in times of epidemic or public calamity. On such occasions, it is their duty to attend to the needs of the sufferers, even at the risk of their own lives and without regard to financial returns. At all times, it is the duty of the physician to notify the properly constituted public health authorities of every case of communicable disease under his care in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations of the health authorities of the Philippines. Section 2. It is the duty of every physician, when called upon by the judicial authorities, to assist in the administration of justice on matters which are medico-legal in character. Section 3. It is the duty of physicians to warn the public against the dangers and false pretensions of charlatans and quacks, since, their deceitful practice may cause injury to health and even loss of life. Section 4. A physician should never cover up, help, aid or Act as a dummy of any illegal practitioner, quack or charlatan. Section 5. Solicitations of patients, directly or indirectly, through solicitors or agents, is unethical. Modest advertising may be allowed through professional cards, classified advertising, directories of signboard. In all these advertisements only the name, title or profession, office ours

and office and residence addresses should appear. In case of physicians specializing on a definite branch of medicine, the speciality may be advertised by stating Practice limited to (speciality) or by merely stating: Obstetrician, Orthopedic surgeon, Ophthalmologist, etc. Advertising and publishing personal superiority, possession of special certificates or diplomas, post-graduate training abroad, specific methods of treatment or operative techniques or advertising former connection with hospitals or clinics are likewise unethical. Guaranteeing or warranting treatments or operations is objectionable. Section 6. No physician should advertise through the radio, television or movies not allow the publication or reports or comments on cases or methods of treatment in any newspaper or magazine. Only medical articles which will contribute to the knowledge and education of the public on general health matters may be published and the author may be identified provided the article is neither self-laudatory not in any way related to his clinical practice. In case any picture of a laudatory article is published by any body without the consent or knowledge of the physician concerned, the latter should make a written protest and disclaimer to be published in the same newspaper or magazine where the original article in question was published. A copy of this letter should also be furnished the component society to whom the physician belongs and to the PMA Secretariat. Section 7. The physician-columnist must be well informed and up-to-date in the subject matter of his column. The scope of the medical column should be in the form of general information, of education value and of public interest, such as needs for yearly periodic consultations, preventive measures, formation of good health habits, explanation of need for diagnostic sides, emergency measures, and other topics of general interest to the health of the public. Medical columns should not make specific diagnosis or therapy or be projected to individual cases. The physician- columnist should not be in active clinical practice. If however, the physician-columnist is in active clinical practice, his authorship must be in the form of pseudonym or the columns may be published under the sponsorship of a medical society or a specialty society to which he belongs. Section 8. Humanity requires every physician to render his services gratuitously to poor and indigent persons who are in need of his attendance. The endowed institution and organization for mutual benefit or for accident, sickness or life insurance or for analogies purposes have no claim upon physicians for unremunerated service. Article IV DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO THEIR COLLEAGUES AND TO THE PROFESSION Section 1. Physicians should labor together in harmony, each giving freely to others whatever advantage he may have to contribute. Section 2. A physician should willingly render gratuitous service to a colleague, to his wife and minor children or even to his father or mother provided the latter are aged and are being supported by the colleague. He should however, be furnished the necessary traveling expenses and compensated for all medicines and supplies necessary in the treatment of the patient. This provision shall not apply to physicians who are no longer in practice not to physicians who are engaged only or purely in business. Section 3. In difficult and serious cases or in those which are outside the competence of the attending physician, he should always suggest and ask consultation. Only experienced physicians who are senior to the attending physician or who have had special training and experience in a particular line of medicine should be selected by the latter as consultants. Section 4. Out of consideration for the object of consultation and for the physicians duty to uphold the honor and dignity of his profession, no physician should meet in consultation with

anyone who is not qualified by law to practice medicine. In arranging for a consultation the attending physician should fix the hours of the meeting. However, it is his duty to make the appointment in a way satisfactory to the consultant. Section 5. Every physician participating in a consultation should endeavor to observe punctuality. Unless the cause of delay is known, if the attending physician does not arrive within a reasonable time after the appointed hour, the consultant should, according to the circumstances attending the case, be at liberty either to regard the consultation as postponed or to see the patients alone. In the latter case, he should leave his conclusions in writing in a sealed envelope. On the other hand, if the consultant does not appear at the fixed time, the attending physician, after a reasonable period of waiting, and with the consent of the patient, or his family, may either arrange for another consultation or give permission for the consultant to examine the patient and forward to him a written opinion, the consultant must see to it that the opinion is under seal and that his statements are courteously worded. Section 6. The attending physician should give the consultant all necessary information relating to the case. This should be done in a place away from the patient and his family. After this, the consultant should be brought in and introduced to the patient by the attending physician, who may examine the patient again, if he thinks it necessary to note any possible change before turning his patient over to the consultant. The latter then should proceed to make a thorough examination. During the examination, the attending physician may make patient remarks or observation. While in the presence of the patient or of his family, the consultant should not make any remarks about the diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, or treatment or hint of any possible error of the attending physician. Section 7. In a seclude place away from the patient, the physicians should discuss the case and determine the course of treatment to be followed. Neither statement nor discussion of the case should take place before the patient or his family or friend, not only to save the attending physician from possible embarrassment, but also to prevent all possible misapprehension which susceptible lay persons might easily derive from the plain discussion usually unavoidable in such cases. Section 8. Once the discussion is terminated, the result of the deliberations should be announced. The duty of announcing it to the patients family or friends should be mutually arranged between the attending physician and the consultant, and no opinion or information should be announced without previous deliberation and concurrence. Section 9. Differences of opinion should not be divulged; but when there is an irreconcilable disagreement, the circumstances should be frankly, courteously, and impartially explained to the patients family or friends. Section 10. When a consultation is over and the physician in charge is designated, the latter shall be responsible for the care and treatment of the patient. He may, however, suggest calling in any other physician whom he regards as competent to help or to advise. He may at anytime change or abandon the course of treatment outlined and agreed upon at the consultation, if and when, in his opinion, such action is required by the condition of the patient. If he does this, he should at the next consultation state his reasons for departing from the course previously agreed upon because it is his duty to follow the treatment, outlined and refrain from changing if for trivial motives. If an emergency occurs and the physician in charge is not available, the consultant should attend to the case until the arrival of his colleague, but should not take further charge of it except with the consent of the attending physician. Section 11. Cases which appear to be out of the proper line of practice of the physician in charge or refractory in spite of the usual clinical treatment, or with a grave prognosis should be referred to those who specialize in that class of ailments. It is desirable that the patient brings with him a letter of introduction giving the history of the case, its diagnosis and treatment, and all the details that may be of service to the specialist. The latter should, in turn reply in writing to the

physician in charge, giving his opinion of the case together with the course of treatment he recommends. These opinions or suggestions must be regarded as strictly confidential. Section 12. A physician should observe utmost caution, tact and prudence, both in words and in action, as regards the professional conduct of another physician, particularly when it concerns a patient previously treated by the latter or actually under his care. In his dealings with patients not under his care, he should not say or do anything that might lessen the patients confidence reposed in the attending physician. Section 13. Whenever a physician is compelled to make a social or business call on a patient under the professional care of another physician, he should not make inquiries or comments as to the etiology diagnosis, treatment, or prognosis of the case. The most that may be mentioned is the general physical condition of the patient or other topics foreign to the case. Section 14. A physician should not take charge of or prescribe for a patient already under the care of another physician, unless the case is one of emergency, or the physician in attendance has relinquished the case, or the services of the attending physician has been dispensed with. Section 15. A physician should never examine or treat a hospitalized patient without the latters knowledge and consent except in cases of emergency, but in the latter instance, the physician should not continue the treatment but return the patient to his attending physician after the emergency has passed. Section 16. A physician called upon to attend a patient of another physician either because of an emergency, or because the family physician asks for it, or is not available should attend only to the patients immediate needs. His attendance ceases when the emergency is over or on the arrival of the physician in charge after he has reported the condition found and treatment administered; and he should not charge the patient for his services without the knowledge of the attending physician. Section 17. Whenever in the absence of the family physician several physicians have been simultaneously called in an emergency case because of the alarm and anxiety of the family or friends, the first to arrive should be considered as physician in charge, unless the patient or his family has special preference for some other one among those who are present. As a matter of courtesy, the acting physician in charge should request, at the start, that the family physician be called. When the patient is taken to the hospital, the attending physician of the hospital, likewise should communicate with the family physician so as to give him the option of attending the case. Section 18. Public interest demands that the relation between government and private physicians should be friendly and cordial for the promotion and protection of public health depend greatly upon the cooperation of government and private physicians. Section 19. The physician should carefully refrain from making unfair and unwarranted criticism of other physicians and, even in justified circumstances, criticism should be made in a constructive way and only directly and privately to the physicians involved. Whenever there is an irreconcilable difference of opinion, or conflict of interest between Professional Regulation Commission

Section 23. A physician should be upright, diligent, sober, modest and well-versed in both the science and the art of his profession. Extravagance, intemperance, and superstitious are most destructive to the professional reputation, influence, and confidence; and they are not only financially but also morally disastrous. Section 24. Advertising by means of untruthful or improbable statements in newspapers or other publications, or exaggerated announcements on shingles and signboards, calculated to

mislead or deceive the public, or made in manner not consistent with good moral and right professional dealings with a patient, is unprofessional. Announcements in newspaper, or in signboards or shingles, should be restricted to the facts about the location of clinics, office hours, and limitation of practice. It is equally incompatible with honorable standing in the profession to solicit patients by circulars, by advertisements, of by personal relations to procure patients indirectly through solicitors or agents. Section 25. It is unprofessional for a physician to help r to employ unqualified persons for the purpose of evading he legal restriction governing the practice of medicine. Section 26. It is degrading to the good name of the medical profession to prescribe, dispense or manufacture secret remedies or to promote their use in any way. It is likewise unprofessional to promise or boast or radical cures or to exhibit publicly testimonial of success in the treatment of diseases. Section 27. It is degrading to the professional character for physicians to deliberately to prolong the progress of treatment of diseases for questionable motives, or to establish an unjust competition among physicians in the community by unwarranted lowering of fees. Section 28. When a patient is referred by one physician to another for consultation or for treatment whether the physician in charge accompanies the patient or not, it is unprofessional to give or to receive commission by whatever term it may be called or under any guise or pretext whatsoever. It is unprofessional for a physician to pay or offer to pay, or to receive or solicit commission for the purpose of gaining patients or for recommending professional service. physicians, which cannot be adjusted by both sides alone, the matter should be referred to a committee of impartial physicians or other competent bodies for arbitration. Section 20. When a physician is requested by a colleague to take care of a patient during his temporary absence or when because of an emergency he is asked to see the patient of a colleague, the physician should treat the patient in the same manner and with the same delicacy as he would have wanted his own patient cared for under similar conditions. The patient should be returned to the care of the attending physician as soon as possible.

Section 21. When a physician attends a woman in labor in the absence of another who has been engaged to attend, such physician should relinquish the patient to the one first engaged upon his arrival. The physician is entitled to compensation for the professional services he may have rendered. Section 22. A true physician does not base his practice on exclusive dogma or sectarian system for medicine is a liberal profession. It has no creed, no party, no master. Neither is it subject to any bond except that of truth. A physician should keep abreast of the advancement of medical science; contribute to its progress; and associate with his colleagues in any of the recognized medical societies, so that he may broaden his horizon through the exchange of ideas, and in order that he may contribute his time, energy, and means towards making these societies represent the ideas of the profession. The medical journal is one of the most important instruments through which these objectives may be accomplished. It is therefore necessary that editors and members of editorial boards of medical journals should possess adequate qualifications. And to the end in view all editors and members of the editorial boards of national medical journals will be recommended by the Philippine Association of Medical Writers, Inc. to the Executive Council, and in case of specialty and component medical society journals, the appointment of editors an members of editorial boards will be left at the discretion of their respective affiliate specialty or component medical societies concerned. Furthermore, the

contents of medical journals should conform to accepted standards as provided for by the Philippine Association of Medical Writers, Inc. Section 29. Physicians should expose without fear or favor, before the proper medical or legal tribunals, corrupt or dishonest conduct of members of the profession. All questions affecting the professional reputation of a member or members of the medical society should be considered only before proper medical tribunals, in executive sessions or by special or duly appointed committees on ethical relations. Every physician should aid in safeguarding the profession against the admission to its ranks of those who are unfit or unqualified because of deficiency in moral character or education. Article V DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO ALLIED PROFESSIONALS Section 1. Physicians should cooperate with and safeguard the interest, reputation, an dignity of every pharmacist, dentist, and nurse; because all of them have as their objective the amelioration of human suffering. But, should they violate their respective professional ethics, they thereby forfeit all claims to favorable considerations of the public and of physicians. Section 2. Physicians should never sign or allow to be published any testimonial certifying the efficacy value and superiority and recommending the use of any drug, medicine, food product, instrument or appliance or any other object or product related to their practice specially when published in a lay newspaper or magazine or broadcast through the radio or television. When such testimonials are published or broadcast without his knowledge and consent, he should immediately make the necessary rectification and order the discontinuance thereof. Section 3. A physician should neither pay commissions to any person who refers cases to or help him in acquiring patient nor receive commission from druggist, laboratory men, radiologists or other co-workers in the diagnosis and treatment of patients for referring patients to them.

Article VI AMENDMENTS Section 1. The House of Delegates of the Philippine Medical Association, upon recommendation of the Executive Council, by a majority vote of all the delegates may amend or repeal this Code or adopt new Code of Ethics of the Medical Profession in the Philippines. Any amendment shall be a part of this Code of Medical Ethics and such amendments shall become effective after thirty (30) days following the completion of its publication in the Official Gazette. Article VII PENAL PROVISIONS Section 1. This Code of Ethics shall be published in the Official Gazette to have the force and effect of law. Copies of this Code shall be distributed every year to all physicians during their Annual Conventions and published once a year in all medical journals published in the Philippines for the proper information and guidance of all physicians both in private practice and in the government service and shall also be distributed among all new physicians immediately following their oath taking. It shall be included in the curriculum of all medical schools as part of the course of study of legal medicine, ethics and medical jurisprudence.

Section 2. Violation of anyone of the provisions of this Code of Ethics shall constitute unethical and unprofessional conduct and therefore a sufficient ground for the reprimand, suspensions, or revocation of the certificate of registration of the offending physician in accordance with the provisions of Section 24, paragraph (12) of the Medical Act of 1959, Republic Act 2382.