Does the structure of the NHS undermine the medical ethic?
No. A doctor’s primary responsibility is to the patient irrespective of his/her employer, or government policy. A doctor must work within the medical code. The trust between patients and doctors would be eroded if doctors complied with State or Company policies which endangered the health of patients. In 1941 4,261 Dutch doctors signed a letter to the German Rijkscommisaris in Occupied Holland: `… Although we do not deny that the care of the community and social hygiene measures constitute part of the task of the physician, we can recognise this duty only insofar as it proceeds from and is not in conflict with the first and holiest precept of the physician, namely the respect for life and for the physical well-being of the individual who entrusts himself to his care.’ Many of the signatories were sent to concentration camps, but the Nazi euthanasia programme was never imposed in Holland, and Dutch doctors never signed the certificates declaring men fit for work – a preliminary to dep
