Ethical Guidance
PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS
The Code of Ethics covers the professional conduct of all the registered health practitioners apart from nurses and midwives who are covered under a different Act.
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This Code of Ethics describes the statutory basis and machinery of the Council’s jurisdiction in cases of professional misconduct and criminal offenses. It also deals with various forms of misconduct that may lead to proceedings by the Disciplinary Committee.
It contains specific advice in certain areas of professional conduct and further describes the statutory basis and machinery of the Council’s jurisdiction in relation to practitioners whose fitness to practice is adversely impaired by their physical or mental illness.
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It should be noted that this Code of Ethics outlines basic principles of professional practice across the board. It is not a substitute for the specific Code of Ethics for the various health practitioners registered by the HPCZ. Codes of Ethics are “profession-specific” rather than generic.
GENERATIONS & MANAGEMENT
OF PATIENT'S RECORDS
Health Information records are vital to the provision of quality health care. It is in this regard that the Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ) has developed guidelines to guide the practice of acquiring, analysing, and protecting both digital and traditional-paper-based-medical information. HPCZ encourages Health facilities to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the management of patient records in line with the National ICT Policy that was launched in 2007 by the Government of the Republic of Zambia and The Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021.
These guidelines are applicable to practitioners in both public and private health facilities. They define the framework to be used to manage health information, and the exchange of health information in any format.
It is worth noting that patient interactions with health care workers generates volumes of health data that is documented. A question however arises as to ‘who owns the patient record?’. It is therefore expected that these guidelines have clarified this long standing contentious question.
GUIDELINES ON INFORMED CONSENT
Informed Consent is the right for patients to be given sufficient information in a way that they can understand, to enable them to exercise their right to make informed decisions about their care. The right to an informed consent is enshrined in the National Health Care Standards (NHCS). The provisions are enshrined for health practitioners to uphold the patients’ right to consent and address unethical behaviour of patient coercion and situations which disregard the choice of patients when providing health services.
Health practitioners must take appropriate steps to find out what patients need to know and ought to know about their condition and its treatment. Such dialogue with patients leads to clarity of objectives and understanding, and strengthens the quality of the relationship between health practitioners and patients. It provides an agreed framework within which health practitioners can respond effectively to the individual needs of patients.
Health practitioners registered under the Health Professions Act of No. 24 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia have certain rights and privileges. In return, they must meet the standards of competence, care and conduct set by the Health Professions Council of Zambia. This booklet expounds the principles of good practice which all health practitioners are expected to follow when seeking patients’ informed consent to investigations, treatment, screening or research in respect to patients’ rights.
GUIDELINES ON PERVERSE INCENTIVES
The Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ) holds the view that a health practitioner should, at all times, act in the best interest of patients, placing their clinical needs paramount. Thus, the health practitioner should always try to avoid potential conflicts of interests and maintain professional autonomy and commitment to the appropriate professional and ethical norms.
The technical knowledge and high technology equipment are encouraged but they should not be inappropriately used to over-service patients in order to obtain intolerable demands by appropriately qualified health practitioners; over-servicing or perverse incentive of whatever nature is unacceptable.
HPCZ seeks to identify and provide guidance regarding those incentive schemes and forms of inducement which it finds unacceptable. Note that the perverse incentives or potential conflicts of interests set out in this document should not in any way be regarded as an exhaustive list. Perverse Incentives apply to both public and private health facilities.
PATIENT CONFINDENTIALITY
Health Practitioners have a duty to keep their patients’ confidences. In essence, the practitioners’ duty to maintain confidentiality means that he/she may not disclose any health care information revealed by a patient or discovered by a practitioner in connection with the treatment of a patient. In general, the Code of Ethics states that the information disclosed to a health practitioners during the course of the patient-practitioner relationship is confidential to the utmost degree.
The purpose of a practitioners’ duty to maintain patient confidentiality is to allow the patient to feel free to make a full and complete disclosure of information to the practitioners. This is done with the knowledge that the practitioner will protect the confidential nature of the information disclosed.
Full disclosure by a patient enables the practitioner to diagnose conditions skillfully and to treat the patient competently. In return for the patient’s honesty, the practitioner generally should not reveal confidential communications or information without the patient’s express consent unless required to disclose the information by law.
PATIENT'S RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES CHARTER
The Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities Charter is an informant to all the citizens seeking health services as well as a reminder to patients regarding their responsibilities towards the health care personnel who are providing care to patients.
Patient rights include the right to make decisions regarding health care and the right to accept or refuse treatment. Patient responsibilities include actions on the part of patients that are needed so that healthcare providers can provide appropriate care, make accurate and responsible care decisions, address patients’ needs and maintain a sound and viable health care facility.
The Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities Charter which was developed by the Health Professions Council of Zambia, is intended to raise awareness and promote quality of health care, thus, fostering a competent and professional delivery of health services in both public and private health facilities. In addition, it motivates the community to participate in the management of their health by promoting disease prevention, timely referral of patients and access to individual health related information.