You are a junior doctor who is driving home to spend the weekend with your parents. On your way along the country roads you come across an overturned car and an injured cyclist. What should you do? Should you use the knowledge that you have recently gained during your emergency department rotation to give medical assistance to anyone who is injured? Are you legally obliged to stop and assist? Are there any laws protecting you if you do intervene? Or is this decision based on one’s personal ethics and morals?
These are difficult questions, the answers to which will vary depending on where you are in the world.
In the United Kingdom there is no legal duty for anyone to stop and assist someone in need of medical attention—whether doctor, nurse, paramedic, or first aider. In fact, your only duty is not to make the patient’s condition worse. 1 One exception to this absence of legal duty is in the case of general practitioners, who have a contractual duty to provide emergency treatment to anyone within their practice area. 2
Importantly, however, it can be argued that all healthcare professionals have a moral and professional duty to assist. Beneficence and non-maleficence—two core medical ethics principles—reflect this duty, as together they aim to produce a net medical benefit to patients over harm. 3 Within the context of coming across an incident off duty, stepping in to provide any form of medical assistance—from a simple assessment of the situation, to calling the appropriate emergency services, …