Docs ‘have right to sedate’ disabled patients, says senior minister

edical practitioners were Tuesday assured by Dr William Duguid of their right to sedate patients with disabilities when necessary for safe treatment after a fellow Cabinet minister raised concerns over limited access to care for individuals with autism and other conditions.

Dr Duguid, the senior minister who coordinates infrastructure projects in the Prime Minister’s Office, made the declaration during the House debate on the National Policy for Improving the Lives of Persons with Disabilities, responding to issues raised by Minister of People Empowerment and Elder AffairsKirk Humphrey.

Humphrey highlighted that autistic individuals are often denied medical treatment due to concerns about unpredictable behaviour, while many families struggle to access dental care due to the high costs associated with sedation.

Whilst acknowledging that sedation adds significant expense to procedures, Dr Duguid, a dentist by profession, emphasised its importance for ensuring both patient and practitioner safety in certain cases.

“When a practitioner has to see a patient who may have a disability—and there are ranges of disabilities—it is not every disabled person, obviously, who would need to be sedated,” he told fellow lawmakers.

“A practitioner has to make a decision based on the level of the disability, the person’s ability to stay still, their own ability to deal with that person, the environment and surroundings in which they may have to offer that procedure, as well as the technical difficulty of the particular procedure.”

Drawing an analogy to illustrate the challenges faced by healthcare providers, he added: “Imagine trying to do a procedure on something as big as a five-cent piece, while that five-cent piece is moving left and right. Not saying that it can’t be done, but can it be done to the best of your ability? Maybe not. Therefore, a practitioner has to make a decision based on all of those things and then say to themselves, ‘If I cannot do this procedure to the best of my ability, what can I do to augment it so that I can then offer the best service for the patient?’.” (SB)