PM&DC professional ethics and code of conduct

Abstract

As a regulatory body, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) feels responsible for upholding the highest ethical standards in the community of health care providers. The PM&DC values professionalism, integrity, quality, fairness, and endeavors to assimilate these values into its working, communication and regulation activities. The PM&DC operates to maintain the register of Medical and Dental practitioners, regulates the standards of medical practice, protects the interests of the patients, supervises medical education, and gives guidelines on ethical issues. Both major stakeholders in the healthcare profession i.e. doctors and patients have rights as well as obligations towards each other. This code of ethics aims to provide a set of standards, principles and guidelines, which all doctors can use as broader parameters in varying situations, along with their decision making based on experience, knowledge and skills. Though the standards and principles regulating medical practices have stayed unchanged, the advancement in technology and the changing dynamics of life in general pose new challenges which require revisiting this document for up-to-date revisions and publication. This revised ‘Professional Ethics and Code of Conduct’ has been formulated after extensive research on the latest best practices of similar organizations around the world, however, the local context and culture were kept in view.