ABSTRACT
Interprofessional working is taken as a given in primary healthcare. Teams are seen as the key to the future of primary care and public health. This chapter explores the ethical dimensions of interprofessional working. It provides the David Seedhouse's philosophy of health as model for the exploration of the ethics of interprofessional work. The strength of his work is paradoxically the blurring of boundaries between ethics and non-ethics and his inclusion of questions about wider socio-political factors. His work is accessible and applicable to all healthcare professionals and is particularly relevant to the clinical situations. The case studies in the chapter highlight how health work as a moral endeavour may increase and potentiate individuals' autonomy or how both professionals' and patients' integrity is violated and compromised. De Raeve raises the important need for healthcare institutions to stop ignoring the moral issues arising from interprofessional conflict.
