Distributing healthcare services in a fair way is generally not described as integral to the clinicians' role in clinical prioritisations. If considerations of justice are not included in clinicians' role, it is likely that others will shape major parts of their roles and responsibilities in clinical prioritisations. Fair distribution of healthcare services for older patients is possible only if clinicians accept responsibility in these questions.
The interviews in this study indicate that considerations of justice and patients' perspectives should be given more attention to strike a balance between specialised medical approaches and more general and comprehensive approaches in healthcare services for older patients.
Contextual constraints and higher level prioritizations seem to play a key role in clinical prioritizations in nursing homes. The combination of implicit rationing and the factors described as most predominant in the clinical prioritizations in nursing homes may result in inadequate and unjust health care services for some of the nursing home residents. In particular, those patients who do not speak up or do have comprehensive needs are at risk of being neglected.
Clinical priorities should be made more transparent in order to secure legitimate and fair resource allocation in dialysis treatment and care. Difficult decisions concerning withholding or withdrawal of dialysis ought to be openly discussed within the healthcare team as well as with patients and significant others. The biomedical focus and limitations on comprehensive care during dialysis should be debated.
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