Yes, a physician may refuse to prescribe a contraceptive or abortion pills to a patient if it is against his conscience or religion. The doctor is obliged to indicate the real possibilities of obtaining this service from another doctor or in another he alth care institution and justify and record this fact in the medical documentation.
A doctor practicing his profession on the basis of an employment relationship or within the service, is also required to notify the supervisor in advance in writing. It results directly from Art. 39 of the Act on the professions of doctor and dentist.
The doctor cannot refuse to provide the necessary medical assistance
It is worth noting, however, that art. 30 of the same Act indicates that a doctor is obliged to provide medical assistance in any case when a delay in providing it could result in a risk of loss of life, serious injury or serious he alth disorder, and in other urgent cases. The obligation imposed on the doctor to provide assistance occurs in all cases in which delay in providing medical assistance could cause the effects specified in this provision, i.e. also when their occurrence could and should have been foreseen by the doctor. This means that in contact with the patient, the physician is obliged to assess not only his he alth condition on the basis of the current diagnosis, but also, in the event of a risk, to consider the probability of its increase. If the expected increase in the risk indicates the possibility of a threat to life or he alth, then, acting as a guarantor, the doctor is obliged to immediately provide appropriate medical assistance, unless a delay in providing it would not change the degree of risk. Failure to fulfill these obligations by a doctor violates Art. 30 of this act. In the event of the occurrence of the consequences specified in this provision as a result of failure to provide medical assistance, the doctor may be held criminally liable for an offense committed inadvertently, provided that the premises of the party specified in Art. 9 § 2 of the Penal Code
The doctor is obliged to provide information about the he alth condition
Thus, the patient has the right to he alth servicescorresponding to the requirements of medical knowledge and to information about your he alth condition. These rights correspond to the obligations of doctors specified in Art. 31 and 37 of the Act on the Medical Profession, from which it follows that the doctor is obliged to provide the patient with accessible information about his he alth, diagnosis, proposed and possible diagnostic and treatment methods, foreseeable consequences of their application or omission, and in case of diagnostic or therapeutic doubts a physician on his own initiative or at the patient's request, if he considers it justified in the light of medical knowledge, should consult an appropriate specialist doctor.
Suspicion of a fetal defect must be confirmed by prenatal examination
In the light of these provisions and the undisputed fact indicated at the beginning that the only diagnostic test that could confirm or exclude the existence of a fetal defect in the form of Turner syndrome is prenatal genetic testing, each of the respondent doctors had a statutory obligation to issue a referral to the claimant on their own initiative. such examination, informing her of its significance and consequences of the use or omission, as well as of the possible consequences of the suspected genetic defect in the fetus. The claimant had the right to reliable and accessible information on this subject and on genetic tests, and above all, the right to be referred for such free tests, which she could use or not. Every doctor has a duty of competence and an obligation to provide information. It is about real and substantive competences, allowing for the proper assessment of the patient's condition and the use of the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic methods, and the obligation of reliable information should be carried out in such a way as to provide the patient with sufficient and understandable information necessary for him to make a decision on the further procedure.
The patient decides for himself
The patient has the right to independently decide on personal matters of the most important importance, and the doctor's duty is to provide him with reliable, objective and understandable information enabling him to make such a decision and to issue a referral for tests that will allow him to make a proper diagnosis. All this should be done by the doctor on his own initiative, because the patient - who does not generally have medical knowledge - may not only be unaware of his or her he alth condition, but also not know about diagnostic methods that can explain this condition. Failure to provide the indicated information by the doctor, providing unreliable information, disinformation and failure to issue a referral for specialist examinations, when it isnecessary to determine the patient's condition, is the fault of the doctor.
Legal basis:
Act on the professions of doctor and dentist (Journal of Laws of 2008, No. 136, item 857, as amended)