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Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has proven to be one of the countries with the highest coronavirus-linked death rate. To reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Italian Government decision-makers issued a series of law decrees that imposed measu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ferorelli, Davide, Mandarelli, Gabriele, Solarino, Biagio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7764230/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33322462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina56120691
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author Ferorelli, Davide
Mandarelli, Gabriele
Solarino, Biagio
author_facet Ferorelli, Davide
Mandarelli, Gabriele
Solarino, Biagio
author_sort Ferorelli, Davide
collection PubMed
description Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has proven to be one of the countries with the highest coronavirus-linked death rate. To reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Italian Government decision-makers issued a series of law decrees that imposed measures limiting social contacts, stopped non-essential production activities, and restructured public health care in order to privilege assistance to patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Health care services were substantially limited including planned hospitalization and elective surgeries. These substantial measures were criticized due to their impact on individual rights including freedom and autonomy, but were justified by the awareness that hospitals would have been unable to cope with the surge of infected people who needed treatment for COVID-19. The imbalance between the need to guarantee ordinary care and to deal with the pandemic, in a context of limited health resources, raises ethical concerns as well as clinical management issues. The emergency scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the lockdown phase, led the Government and health care decision-makers to prioritize community safety above the individuals’ rights. This new community-centered approach to clinical care has created tension among the practitioners and exposed health workers to malpractice claims. Reducing the morbidity and mortality rates of the COVID-19 pandemic is the priority of every government, but the legitimate question remains whether the policy that supports this measure could be less harmful for the health care system.
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spelling pubmed-77642302020-12-27 Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy Ferorelli, Davide Mandarelli, Gabriele Solarino, Biagio Medicina (Kaunas) Communication Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has proven to be one of the countries with the highest coronavirus-linked death rate. To reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Italian Government decision-makers issued a series of law decrees that imposed measures limiting social contacts, stopped non-essential production activities, and restructured public health care in order to privilege assistance to patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Health care services were substantially limited including planned hospitalization and elective surgeries. These substantial measures were criticized due to their impact on individual rights including freedom and autonomy, but were justified by the awareness that hospitals would have been unable to cope with the surge of infected people who needed treatment for COVID-19. The imbalance between the need to guarantee ordinary care and to deal with the pandemic, in a context of limited health resources, raises ethical concerns as well as clinical management issues. The emergency scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the lockdown phase, led the Government and health care decision-makers to prioritize community safety above the individuals’ rights. This new community-centered approach to clinical care has created tension among the practitioners and exposed health workers to malpractice claims. Reducing the morbidity and mortality rates of the COVID-19 pandemic is the priority of every government, but the legitimate question remains whether the policy that supports this measure could be less harmful for the health care system. MDPI 2020-12-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7764230/ /pubmed/33322462 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina56120691 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Ferorelli, Davide
Mandarelli, Gabriele
Solarino, Biagio
Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_full Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_fullStr Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_short Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy
title_sort ethical challenges in health care policy during covid-19 pandemic in italy
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7764230/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33322462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina56120691
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