A Dangerous Precedent

[sriracha john]

Doctors to be freed from danger of legal action

Published on October 06, 2005

Parliament has approved in principle an amendment to the National Health Security Act that will free doctors from liability in cases of malpractice or professional negligence.

It has set up a committee to finalise details of the changes to the law, which have long had Cabinet sanction.

The Act states that victims of medical errors should receive immediate financial compensation from a fund earmarked for that purpose, and article 42 says that the fund has the right to demand repayment directly from doctors proven to have been responsible for damage to a patient’s health.

Even before it became law, the article prompted mass protests from doctors, who threatened to begin practising “defensive medicine” if it wasn’t removed from the statutes. They said the article left them professionally insecure and under constant risk of litigation.

But what is good news for doctors comes as bad news to consumer rights advocates. They worry that the removal of the article will adversely affect the rights of medical patients who are victims of medical negligence.

The secretary-general of the National Health Security Office, Dr Sanguan Nittayarumpong, said yesterday that prior to the National health Security Act, the law had stated that doctors should pay financial compensation in cases of severe negligence or intentional errors in treatment.

However, the manger of the Foundation for Consumers, Saree Ongsomwang, said the article was the only legal measure that covered the liability of doctors hired by private hospitals. Its removal will make it impossible to pursue legal redress from private doctors in cases of medical negligence.

[Jai Dee]

"All care and no responsibility" hey?

Its removal will make it impossible to pursue legal redress from private doctors in cases of medical negligence.

Add that to the typical "mai pen rai" attitude, and there leaves no incentive (or rather, disincentive) to take care at all...

[ovenman]

Parliament has approved in principle an amendment to the National Health Security Act that will free doctors from liability in cases of malpractice or professional negligence.

I wonder whether the underlying desire is actually to limit potential costs in the government-sponsored thirty-baht health care scheme?

[taxexile]

it just brings them into line with all the other thais in this third world madhouse who refuse to take any responsibility for their actions whatsoever.

[awarrumbungle]

Accountability is essential in a country like this. I could understand a law like this being passed in Aus or the USA to inhibit the ridiculous lawsuits that occur but not here. When quality is desperatley needed....

[Jai Dee]

Parliament has approved in principle an amendment to the National Health Security Act that will free doctors from liability in cases of malpractice or professional negligence.

I wonder whether the underlying desire is actually to limit potential costs in the government-sponsored thirty-baht health care scheme?

You could be close to the real truth there ovenman...

This article was posted from thaisnews.com two days ago...

30- BAHT SCHEME TO BE EXPANDED NEXT YEAR

Secretary-general of the National Health Security Office SA-NGUAN NITAYARUMPHONG (สงวน นิตยารัมภ์พงศ์) has stated that the 30-baht health care plan will be expanded next year to include severe illnesses requiring expensive and complicated treatments.The scheme will also receive more state financial support next year, increasing allocations from 1,369 baht per person to 1,659 baht.

Dr.SA-NGUAN (สงวน) said that the scheme will be expanded to include costly treatment of patients suffering from Aids and leukemia, as well as those who need heart or brain operations.

He said that the new program's patient referral system will enable patients to receive medical services from a variety of associated hospitals. This means a huge cut in waiting for heart patients requiring urgent surgerical treatment.

[taxexile]

it should be compulsory for doctors to have indemnity insurance against malpractice suits.

the patient sues the doctor in the courts and the insurance company defends the doctor. if the doctor is found guilty then the insurance company compensates the patient.

a guilty doctor is then hauled up before his licensing body and then struck off !

its not a perfect system as it encourages needless and ridiculous lawsuits and defensive medical practice , but it is surely better than having hospitals full of scalpel happy quacks who know that whatever they do they will not be held accountable.

[ovenman]

Should this be implemented, one wonders how it will play out in light of the Thai government's plans to transform the kingdom into the health-care hub of the universe, with foreigners coming from afar to have costly medical procedures performed. Can't imagine the news that doctors are no longer liable for anything that might go wrong will build much in the way of good press for this hub.

[sriracha john]

Accountability is essential in a country like this.  I could understand a law like this being passed in Aus or the USA  to inhibit the ridiculous lawsuits that occur but not here.  When quality is desperatley needed....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

it should be compulsory for doctors to have indemnity insurance against malpractice suits.

the patient sues the doctor in the courts and the insurance company defends the doctor.  if the doctor is found guilty then the insurance company compensates the patient.

a guilty doctor is then hauled up before his licensing body and then struck off !

its not a perfect system as it encourages needless and ridiculous lawsuits and defensive medical practice , but it is surely better than having hospitals full of scalpel happy quacks who know that whatever they do they will not be held accountable.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here, here... in total agreement. The complete elimination of any recourse for any patient who suffers from a doctor's malpractice/negligence, whether here or awarrumbungle's Australia/US, is not the course to take.

[sriracha john]

Should this be implemented, one wonders how it will play out in light of the Thai government's plans to transform the kingdom into the health-care hub of the universe, with foreigners coming from afar to have costly medical procedures performed.  Can't imagine the news that doctors are no longer liable for anything that might go wrong will build much in the way of good press for this hub. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent point. I'm sure that little tidbit (no physician malpractice here in Thailand) won't be included in any of the glossy brochures touting the health-care hub.

[taxexile]

i dont think the government decree will change anything.

i doubt if a doctor here has ever been succesfully sued for malpractice before.

[ovenman]

Excellent point. I'm sure that little tidbit (no physician malpractice here in Thailand) won't be included in any of the glossy brochures touting the health-care hub.

Sigh. There's simply no truth in advertising, is there?

I'm even more convinced that what I said above is relevant (thanks Jai Dee for re-posting the other article!). This proposed shirking of responsibility is merely the government's way of letting itself off the hook financially in future malpractice situations rather than any misplaced concern for an individual doctor's financial well-being over a patient's overall well-being.

[sriracha john]

i dont think the government decree will change anything.

i doubt if a doctor here has ever been succesfully sued for malpractice before.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While it is extremely rare, it has happened in a handful of cases, the FIRST being only in 2004.

This case shows just how glaringily wrong some medical cases are:

The court ordered the Public Health Ministry to pay Sirimas Kaewkhongchan, 22, Bt600,000 in damages as a result of malpractice at Ron Phibun district hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat. The court ordered the ministry to pay the compensation, plus 7.5 per cent interest backdated to June 5, 2002.

It ruled that the hospital had been negligent while performing an operation on her mother, Somkhuan Kaewkhongchan, 49, on May 19, 2002, without an anaesthetist.

“I remember hearing my mother screaming very loudly during the operation. When I ran in to see her lying on the bed with a hugely inflated stomach, the doctors told me she had just stopped breathing,” Sirimas said.

Her unconscious mother was then transferred to a large hospital in an ill-equipped ambulance that had no oxygen ventilator. The old woman eventually died.

Sirimas said the doctors who performed the operation had refused to accept that it was their fault and simply offered Bt50,000 in compensation.

The Medical Council, with which Sirimas also filed a complaint, ruled that her complaint was groundless and that the doctors met the standards of medical practice.

&lt;deleted&gt;?

A blind woman yesterday received a cheque for Bt800,000 from the Public Health Ministry after a court ordered it to compensate her for the loss of her eyesight following treatment at a state hospital.

Published on Jun 22, 2004

"My dearest, we've won," Jatupas Pongpeeramitr whispered to the urn in her hand containing her youngest daughter's ashes.

She spoke after Khon Kaen Provincial Court ordered a physician to pay for recklessly causing her daughter's death.

Tears in her eyes, Jatupas thanked the court for handing down a verdict she had pursued for more than six years

Dr Tassanee Kovitsomboon, of Khon Kaen Ram Hospital, was absent yesterday when the court ordered her to pay Bt1.58 million to Jatupas.

It was the first time that a victim of medical malpractice has won a case in the history of Thai consumer protection laws.

Edited October 6, 2005 by sriracha john

[sbk]

Maybe the guy in the Visa section who wants to bring his old parents over to live should read this thread too

Too many stories in the papers, remember that poor woman who ended peeing out of her vagina for over a year because of medical malpractice? It took her that long to get the dr to agree to fix the problem he caused!!