The British Medical Journal has published an urgent analysis revealing a critical disconnect in modern healthcare: despite unprecedented diagnostic precision and computational capabilities, patients report feeling depersonalized while clinicians experience severe moral distress. Healthcare workforces worldwide are experiencing unsustainable staff attrition, signaling systemic dysfunction beyond what standard performance metrics capture.
Researchers identify profit-driven structural forces—termed “salve lucrum”—as major contributors to healthcare’s moral crisis. This pathology extends across pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and physician practices globally, fundamentally distorting healthcare’s foundational purpose of caring for patients as human beings rather than processing them as commercial entities.
The BMJ analysis calls for healthcare systems to reconnect with their core mission through reassessment of current operational models. Healthcare leaders, policymakers, and clinical professionals are examining how institutional practices can restore human-centered care while maintaining technological advances. This is a developing story.
Source: Healthcare's moral emergency: reconnecting healthcare with its mission and purpose
