“The doctor-patient relationship is bankrupt”

The 71st General Assembly of the World Medical Association, held in Córdoba (Spain) approved the Córdoba Declaration, a document in which all the agents involved are urged the doctor-patient relationship, (governments and health authorities, medical associations, doctors and patients) to defend, protect and strengthen this doctor-patient relationship, based on high quality care, as a scientific, health, cultural and social heritage.

This declaration, an initiative of Spain, the General Council of Official Medical Associations (CGCOM) and Portugal, Ordem dos Medicos (ODM) and named after the host city, says the essential importance of the doctor-patient relationship in the history and present and future context of medicine, reiterating its Geneva Declaration, the International Code of Medical Ethics and the Lisbon Declaration on Patient Rights.

For the president of CGCOM, Serafin Romero, this statement “supposes a huge support for this project that the Spanish medical profession has initiated so that the doctor-patient relationship is Intangible cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco because “-add-“there is a break in the doctor-patient relationship, which has a lot to do with empathy and non-verbal language, you have to avoid the loss of humanization and try to make this relationship last, despite technological advances, which come to the aid, not to replace ”.

The text approved by the constituent members of the WMA makes a number of recommendations in the Córdoba Declaration, in which they reaffirm that professional autonomy and clinical independence are essential components of high quality medical care and professionalism protect the right of patients to receive the medical treatment they need.

Likewise, they ask constituent members and doctors to defend this model of relationship as the fundamental core of any person-centered medical act, that uphold the medical profession and its ethical values, including compassion, competence, mutual respect and professional autonomy and the support of patient-centered care.

They reaffirm their opposition to the interference of the government, other institutional agents and administrations in the practice of Medicine and in the doctor-patient relationship; as well as their dedication to providing competent medical service with full professional and moral independence, with compassion and respect for human dignity.

Finally, they are committed to addressing emerging factors that could pose a threat to the doctor-patient relationship and to take measures to mitigate those factors.

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