Medical mistake: what is the criminal responsibility of the doctor

When asking for help, a person expects that she will be provided with high-quality medical services and she will quickly restore her health. However, it is often the case that medical personnel make a mistake and harm the patient’s health, and sometimes such a mistake even leads to death. In such cases, the patient or his relatives try to “find the truth” by going to court. However, in Ukraine, very few cases are resolved in favor of patients, because it is very difficult to prove the mistake or negligence of doctors.

Usually these cases are considered for several years, because in order to establish the causes of negative consequences for the health of the patient or the causes of his death, the use of special knowledge in the field of medicine, and therefore, the appointment of a forensic medical examination, and sometimes several examinations, when the expert opinion is not the issues that are in dispute between the parties coincide or not resolved. So, if the expert's opinion is considered incomplete or unclear, the court may appoint an additional expert examination, which is entrusted to one or another expert (experts). However, if the party considers that the expert's opinion is ungrounded, contrary to other materials of the case or raises doubts about its correctness, it may, on the basis of Part 2 of Art. 150 CPCU to apply to the court with a petition for the appointment of a re-examination, which is entrusted to another expert.
Compensation for damage What are the peculiarities of the reimbursement of this harm to patients? The procedure for its reimbursement is specified in paragraph 2 of Chapter 82 of the CCU. It is provided that such damage is compensated by a legal entity (a hospital, other medical institution) or a natural person (a public doctor or a physician who carries out private medical practice or entrepreneurial activity on the basis of a medical practice license). Material damage. The damage to the patient's health can not be compensated because human health can not be restored to the level that existed before. In this case, only compensation for the losses and expenses incurred by the patient can be considered. According to Art. 1195 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, it consists in reimbursement to the victim of earnings (income) lost by them as a result of loss or reduction of professional or general ability to work, as well as in the reimbursement of additional expenses caused by the need for enhanced nutrition, sanatorium treatment, the purchase of drugs, prosthetics, third-party care, etc. The pity associated with the death of the breadwinner. Article 1200 of the Civil Code is devoted to the reimbursement of damage in the event of death of the patient. In such a case, the right to apply to a court of law is open to persons who were in the maintenance of the victim or had the right to receive from him a child on the day of his death, as well as the child of the victim born after his death. Moral damage. According to Art. 23 CCU is subject to compensation and moral damage inflicted on a person. This damage consists in both the physical pain experienced by the person in the process of improper treatment in the clinic and in the physical pain that was the result of inadequate medical care as well as the pain caused during the "correction" of the medical error (for example, when erased incorrectly polished by a dentist of the tooth and replaced by an artificial implant). In addition, moral harm is the mental suffering that a person has suffered due to such actions of doctors and who expressed their feelings about their health, in the opinion that the prescribed treatment does not help, etc. How to prove the wrongness of doctors However, in order to be entitled to the indicated reimbursement, the person must substantiate and prove in court: a) the fact or inactivity of the doctors, which was expressed in the wrong diagnosis of the disease or improperly prescribed treatment. For each disease, by the order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, approved standards for the provision of medical care, which determine which analyzes and diagnostic tests should be used to confirm the initial diagnosis and which treatment tactics should be chosen. Thus, by Order of 27.07.1998, No. 226, the Provisional Branch Unified Standards for Medical Technologies of the Diagnostic-Therapeutic Process for Inpatient Care for Adult Population in Ukrainian Health Care Institutions and the Provisional Standards for the Volume of Diagnostic Research, Therapeutic Measures and Criteria for the Quality of Treatment of Children were approved. These standards are divided for each medical specialty, within which a particular disease is isolated. Therefore, before writing a statement of claim, it is necessary to determine in which department was treated the patient (medical specialty), and to determine which diagnosis was given to the patient in a medical institution. As a rule, at discharge, only epicrisis is given to the patient, the medical institution refuses to provide other documentation. However, the patient has the full right to demand any documentation that is available at the hospital (in particular, the medical card of the patient, the results of all analyzes and the diary of treatment), referring to Art. 34 and 49 of the Constitution, art. 285 CCU and Art. 39 Fundamentals of Ukrainian Law "On Health Protection". Having all the documents in his hands, the applicant can compare the diagnosis and the prescribed treatment to him with the norms, which prescribe the obligatory actions of the doctors. Only when discrepancies are detected, we can say that physicians failed to perform their duties improperly and assumed a medical diagnostic and / or therapeutic and tactical mistake.