“Perspectives for the Protection of Medical Staff’s Rights and Development of Bioethics in Georgia”

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) and Georgian Medical Association held a joint conference “Perspectives for the Protection of Medical Staff’s Rights and Development of Bioethics in Georgia” on December 21. The Ethics Council was established upon initiative of the TSU Faculty of Medicine at the conference attended by the chairpersons of the medical trade unions, representatives of the Ethics Council and pharmaceutical companies. Prof. Giorgi Lobzhanidze, chairman of the Ethical Research Council, said: “The Ethnical Research Council will not involve only internal regulation, but it will cover the entire country.”
President of the Independent Trade Union for Health, Pharmaceutical and Social Care Workers, Professor Irakli Amiranashvili said that “although today the rights of health workers are not violated frequently and roughly, there are some cases in which about 6000 members of our trade union are involved actively and we have quite good results. We, however, want lawyers to get involved in the protection of health workers.”  
The conference addressed a wide range of important issues relating to the protection of patients’ and medical staff’s rights, professional liability insurance, the role of medical trade unions, the Patriarchate’s opinions, ethical aspects of pharmaceutical market, biomedical research, etc.
Field specialists presented papers about the current situation in Georgia. A discussion was held on the development of these directions and legislative initiatives.