Rationing of health care services to the elderly in the opinion of staff hospital emergency departments

Abstract Introduction. Rationing of medical services is based on several rules, among which stand out the ethical rules. This means equal access to health care for everyone regardless of age, religion, gender or social status. Possible discrimination because of age is called ageism, which consists of resentment, making unjust and unfair judgment or abusive choices in relation to the elderly. Purpose of the work. The aim of this study was to investigate the views of staff of hospital emergency departments on the ethical aspects of the rationing of health care services to the elderly. Material and methods. The study was conducted in 2017 in a group of 60 nurses and 60 paramedics working in emergency departments Lublin province. Diagnostic survey method was used. The collected material was subjected to statistical analysis using the software SPSS IBM Statistic. Results. The age of the patient, in determining order of medical care, was important to 18.4% (n = 22) tested. For nurses, the criterion of age was statistically more significant than for paramedics (