Ethics Issues Related to Access to Care in Rural Communities

Ethics Issues Related to Access to Care in Rural Communities

with Host, Amanda Porter and special guest speakers:

Tara Rutherford, Health Services Manager, Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital

Roberta Duschene, Director of Rural and Community Sites, Central Zone, Halifax

Discussion Questions

• How might community engagement in the recruitment process of new physicians contribute to sustain access to health care in rural communities? 
• Can you think of ways to engage community members in approaches that can help sustain access to care in rural communities where there is no on-site physician available? 
• In your opinion, what is a reasonable expectation about how far you might need to travel to access some forms of care? (Such as, for example, emergency care) 
• If you had, for example, one part-time primary care physician covering an entire zone, what kind of service would you think should be prioritized?” What do you think?  

Resources:  

Simpson, C. and McDonald, F. (2017) Rural Health Ethics. Springer 2017 http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319608099  

Szumer, R.T.O., Arnold, M. The Ethics of Overlapping Relationships in Rural and Remote Healthcare. A Narrative Review. Bioethical Inquiry 20, 181–190 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-023-10243-w