What is the ruling on a doctor examining a female patient’s abdomen or head if the medical work requires it to be complete and to fully assess the condition?
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The questioner : Your Eminence, we are a group of doctors working in Riyadh.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : There is a group of brother doctors working in Riyadh who have night shifts during which they cover male and female patients.
Sometimes a female patient complains, for example, of a headache or abdominal pain, and the medical work requires, in order to be complete, that the examination be conducted after obtaining full information about the cause of the headache. It requires examining the abdomen, the head, or other areas so that, meaning, he is free from responsibility or does not bear responsibility.
If the examination is not done, the patient may not be harmed much, meaning there is a possibility to avoid this.
But in order to fully assess the condition, it requires examination. The patient may be female and the doctor male. If he wants to avoid such a situation, is he allowed to do so, or is the interest that he examines even if the patient is female?
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for the hospital administration to pay attention to this and to arrange shifts between men and women so that if female patients need to be treated or examined, women are sent to them. If he does not fulfill this obligation and does not care, then you have no blame in examining women, but on the condition that there is no seclusion.
Also, there must be a need for the examination. If there is no need, meaning if the detailed examination can be postponed until women are present, then postpone it. If it cannot be postponed, then this is a need and there is nothing wrong with it. Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : There is a group of brother doctors working in Riyadh who have night shifts during which they cover male and female patients.
Sometimes a female patient complains, for example, of a headache or abdominal pain, and the medical work requires, in order to be complete, that the examination be conducted after obtaining full information about the cause of the headache. It requires examining the abdomen, the head, or other areas so that, meaning, he is free from responsibility or does not bear responsibility.
If the examination is not done, the patient may not be harmed much, meaning there is a possibility to avoid this.
But in order to fully assess the condition, it requires examination. The patient may be female and the doctor male. If he wants to avoid such a situation, is he allowed to do so, or is the interest that he examines even if the patient is female?
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for the hospital administration to pay attention to this and to arrange shifts between men and women so that if female patients need to be treated or examined, women are sent to them. If he does not fulfill this obligation and does not care, then you have no blame in examining women, but on the condition that there is no seclusion.
Also, there must be a need for the examination. If there is no need, meaning if the detailed examination can be postponed until women are present, then postpone it. If it cannot be postponed, then this is a need and there is nothing wrong with it. Yes.