Doctors described hospital lawyers who “refused to meet” with them for months, were hard to reach during “life or death” situations and offered little help beyond “regurgitating” the law, according to a Senate Finance Committee report.
Expanding on this: a doctor will want to maximize the good they can do. They can’t do any good if they lose their license or go to jail. To that end, if doing a good thing now would cause that to happen, they may have to give up doing that good thing in order to be able to do more good things later. The problem with not being able to consult with a lawyer is that they might not know which good things they’re allowed to do and which ones they aren’t. If they think they aren’t allowed to do a good thing that they are allowed to do, or they don’t know if they’re allowed to do it, they can end up not doing it when they could’ve done the good thing. This is where having a lawyer involved in the process is helpful. It helps enable the doctor to maximize the good things they do.
Expanding on this: a doctor will want to maximize the good they can do. They can’t do any good if they lose their license or go to jail. To that end, if doing a good thing now would cause that to happen, they may have to give up doing that good thing in order to be able to do more good things later. The problem with not being able to consult with a lawyer is that they might not know which good things they’re allowed to do and which ones they aren’t. If they think they aren’t allowed to do a good thing that they are allowed to do, or they don’t know if they’re allowed to do it, they can end up not doing it when they could’ve done the good thing. This is where having a lawyer involved in the process is helpful. It helps enable the doctor to maximize the good things they do.