Providing healthcare outside working hours: moral and legal aspects

It would often be in the public interest for persons with special knowledge, including the so-called liberal professionals, to exercise their skills voluntarily, as long as a need for their services arises: for example, a healthcare practitioner would provide treatment to anyone in need of emergency care, architects would act as soon as there is a mention of a crack in the load-bearing wall of an apartment building and judges would judge a court on holidays if need arises. But the legal duty to act can be demanded from those who are legally assigned this task only. For all the stakeholders, legal certainty in healthcare is an issue of major importance. To contribute to this aspect, this study aims to detect the legal and ethical framework of the medical practitioner's obligation to provide treatment outside of working hours. The scientific literature, case-law, legal acts and court judgements were studied; the analytic, doctrinal, comparative and modelling methods were applied; the general legal norm interpretation methods were used. The authors conclude that outside of working hours, medical practitioners are exempt from their legal responsibilities, are guided by moral norms and general citizens’ obligations only and have the right to refuse to provide professional healthcare services. The inconsistency among legal scholars and legal and medical practitioners concerning the duties of healthcare professionals during their rest time was detected. The recommendations are proposed to ensure legal certainty and achieve consentaneity among the stakeholders.