Free legal assistance to the Hungarian Medical Chamber
During the coronavirus epidemic, health care workers have to deal with a number of legal issues that they have not yet dealt with. We began to receive questions from doctors and it soon turned out that the professional medical organization would also need legal support. That is why we have offered the Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK) to organize a team of lawyers from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee as well as lawyers who have expertise in health and labour law matters. We are proud that the Medical Chamber accepted the help we offered.
Our aim is to help the doctors interpret and answer unusual legal problems, or at least explain the relevant rules. A series of Q&A’s was already been launched on the MOK website. We first looked at what problems might arise when examining suspected COVID cases. What are doctors obliged to do under law — for example, can a patient suspected of having COVID-19 be denied treatment on the grounds that the doctor lacks protective equipment?
Questions received by the Medical Chamber are shared with the Helsinki Committee and are answered continuously by a team of external pro bono lawyers and our own staff attorneys from the Helsinki Committee.
The questions and responses are available here: