THE CONTRIBUTION OF ETHICS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Abstract

Physicians know best the value of time and costs of maintaining the health of a patient or of a certain category of the population, in other words, the costs of the quality of life of the population. In the medical field, the best example of how certain institutions emerge and develop is the story of the International Red Cross and the Swiss Jean-Henry Dunant. SARS-CoV2 is not the battle for the city of Solferino in northern Italy, butit can become a context that contributes to the development of the healthcare system, focusing on service quality, on ethical risk management based on the principles of the Caux Round Table and, last but not least, on valuing human development. The writing of the book „A Memory of Solferino” and the initiation of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded caused Henry Dunant a series of financial difficulties, which in time led to poverty and loss of respect in society, but the organization he created has developed, and his basic ideas have been gradually accepted, which is why we are talking today about the International Red Cross. For his work and efforts, Henry Dunant[1] would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1901) by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The paper entitled „The contribution of ethics to the development of the healthcare system” will be a theoretical and practical approach to initiating and applying ethics in the activity and institutional development of the public health system. Man has emotions, feelings and resources that are limited in time, but human communities can be an unlimited resource of knowledge, support and creativity.

[1] „Having joined, at his father's urging, the banking business, he left in 1853 for Algeria, which had been conquered by France in 1830, where he initiated extensive projects for the cultivation of cereals and the construction of mills with modern equipment. In 1858 he succeeded in building such a mill in Djemila (Constantine province) and founded a joint-stock company. In his relationship with the native population, Henry Dunant manifested much humanity, speaking out and taking a stand against slavery. Having difficulty obtaining land, Henry Dunant returned to Europe in 1859 to meet the Emperor of France, Napoleon III, whose support he sought. When Henry Dunant returned from Algeria, the French emperor was at war with the Habsburg Empire, with military operations taking place in the north of the Italian Peninsula, where the vast Lombardo-Venice region was under the control of the Court of Vienna.” Excerpt from the foreword to the Romanian edition of „A Memory of Solferino” by Henry Dunant, Romanian edition published by Editura Militară, Bucharest, 1986, p. 6.