Published on 25 Nov 2025
Patient Rights and Dignity: Ethical governance in healthcare ensures that patients’ fundamental rights, such as the right to informed consent, confidentiality, and dignity, are respected.
Example: In India, the “Patients’ Rights Charter” emphasizes patients’ rights to information, confidentiality, and dignity, promoting ethical healthcare practices.
Quality of Care and Patient Safety: It includes mechanisms for reporting and addressing medical errors, ensuring that healthcare institutions prioritize patient well-being over financial interests.
Example: Medical error reporting systems, like the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act in the U.S., promote ethical governance by confidentially encouraging error reporting and improving patient safety.
Transparency and Accountability: Ethical governance fosters healthcare transparency, covering pricing, billing, and treatment decisions also ensures accountability and curb unethical practices.
Example: Price transparency initiatives in countries like Australia and the Netherlands promotes patients to make informed decisions and curbing unethical billing practices.
Resource Allocation and Equity: Ethical governance strives to prevent disparities in healthcare delivery based on factors like socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, or geographic location.
Example: Kerala, has a robust public healthcare system that prioritizes equitable access to healthcare services, regardless of income or geographic location.
Research and Innovation: It emphasizes ethical guidelines for human subject studies, and regulates emerging technologies like telemedicine and AI for patient safety and ethics.
Example: India’s “New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019” establish stringent ethical standards for conducting clinical trials, ensuring patient well-being in medical research.
Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude
Need for Ethical Governance in Health care
Ethical Governance
General Studies Paper 4
Public Service Values
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