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'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009

Maehle, AH

Authors



Abstract

In 2009 the German media featured the so-called ‘patient trade’ scandal. Offending against the rules of the professional code for German doctors, some medical practitioners had accepted bonus payments from specific hospitals for referring patients to them. This article discusses a historical precedent for this scandal, the patient trade affair of 1909, in which several medical professors of the Berlin university clinics were accused of having paid agents for bringing them lucrative private patients. Although the historical contexts were different, then, as in 2009, a commercial attitude towards medical practice clashed with the ethical ideal of the economically disinterested doctor.

Citation

Maehle, A. (2010). 'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009. Medical Humanities, 36(2), 84-87. https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2010.004655

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2010
Deposit Date May 25, 2011
Journal Medical humanities.
Print ISSN 1468-215X
Electronic ISSN 1473-4265
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 2
Pages 84-87
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2010.004655