Charging for Emergency Assistance

• Introduction
• Contents
• Proposal
• Postings
• Conclusion

Introduction

Contents

My question is whether the anaesthetist who has come to lend a helping hand should be chraging for this service? Personally, I feel that ethically and as a courtesy to our own colleagues, he should not charge. If he does, the patient will receive two anaesthetic charges for a single procedure. Alternatively, the primary anaesthetist will be forced to not charge to avoid any misunderstanding with the patient.

Proposal

Please give your views at GASBoard as to whether you support this view (non-primary anaesthetist not to charge), or oppose this view (non-primary anaesthtist may put up a charge if he so wishes).

Postings

Although I do not normally charge for helping out a colleague in an emergency, I think that there is nothing ethically or morally wrong with charging for my services whether it be for an emergency or for an elective procedure.

The non-primary anaesthetist should not charge 35 % of the full surgical fees unless he was needed throughout the whole procedure and was indeed present throughout the procedure. Barring this, he should charge a reasonable sum for his services if he feels so inclined. For example, he could charge for an emergency consultation. However, it would be prudent for him not to charge more than the primary anaesthetist unless he feels very strongly that a higher charge is very much indicated.
service was provided in an emergency or elective situation.

If we impose a bar to disallow the non-primary anaesthetist from charging, this could result in a situation where an anaesthetist who prefers to charge to not come forward to help. Remember that the moment any of us gets involved in a patient, we could be legally liable for negligence should any thing untoward happen to the patient. The liability remains the same whether we charge or not. Furthermore, such cases are particularly liable to end in legal proceedings. If we choose not to charge, we are in fact passing on the cost of our medical defence indemnity to those "normal" patients where nothing untoward has happened.

The other point is that surgeons, when they are called in whether electively or in an emergency situation, often put in a charge for their services. Why should we feel that our services are any less valuable and, therefore, not eligible for a charge?

I must, therefore, emphatically oppose the proposal to bar charging by the non-primary anaesthetist. The non-primary anaesthetist must be free to charge as he pleases.

2 of 3
we should not charge
From: bobbyphtan
Date: Jun 7 1999

What goes around comes around. Help someone today and you will find someone helping you when you least expect it. How often does this type of "help" occur? Touch wood, very seldom. So I say, be generous with your assistance and not let percuniary thoughts cloud our judgement.The patient should not be made to pay more than necessary. Very often it is just a quick fix.

3 of 3
emergency assistance
From: gasbach
Date: Jun 20 1999

I feel it is difficult to make a blanket ruling

2 examples

1. difficult to intubate-you rush in ,ETT is in,problem solved,maybe no charge
2. difficult clinical problem,second aneasthetist called,maybe even from begining,does the difficult bits,should charge,

in any case it should be made clear that if the clinical problem is difficult and more risky then the input of work is more and the limitation of anaesthetic fees as one third of surgeons becomes ridiculous.

Conclusion