Prioritisation in health care: What does it mean?

Coping with limited resources is one of the key challenges in patient care. Rationalisation reserves have already been exhausted in many areas. Particularly in the health sector, the question needs to be clarified as to how the limited resources can be allocated fairly from both the ethical and legal point of view. The medical community proposes that health care services be prioritised. In other words, priorities are defined in order to increase fair distribution in the health sector. In this context prioritisation does not mean the exclusion of medically necessary services, but grading the granting of services in accordance with the principles of priority. The advantages of prioritisation lie primarily in the transparency of the procedure and in the chance of achieving consistent distribution decisions. Protection of the patient-physician relationship as a confidential relation would remain unaffected since prioritisation is not the same thing as rationing.