»Omhu og samvittighedsfuldhed«

In this paper, the historical background of the health professional disciplinary responsibility system in Denmark is reviewed including the central provision in the Act on Authorization of Health Professionals, para. 17, claiming the health professional to exercise “carefulness and conscientiousness”. Particular emphasis is put on medical doctors. The medical profession was the first to have its own authorization act (the Danish Medical Act, Da. [Lægeloven]) declaring this claim and later authorization legislation concerning health professions generally is heavily influenced by this first regulation. The paper finds that, in line with the phrasing of para 17., the interpretation of health professional responsibility originally relied highly on legal assessment of the cautiousness exercised by the person in question integrating peer health professional clarification of the specific care situation. Later, attention has been gradually directed towards establishing whether health care provision was in accordance with “generally accepted professional standards” or “norms” or if the health professional made an error as assessed by a member of a disciplinary board’s panel of specialists in the field.