Current medical malpractice law displeases both patients and doctors
Daniel Coriu, the president of the Romanian College of Physicians (CMR), stated on Monday that the current medical malpractice law displeases both patients and doctors, because they do not feel protected by the civil insurance that they pay by obligation.
"In our study, carried out in the spring of this year, a study with more than 8,000 medical respondents, 87% of the colleagues consider that the insurance does not provide compensation in real terms. Another topic under discussion refers to the need to change the regulatory framework, including clarifying the conditions under which a doctor can be criminally liable for medical errors. Where does criminal liability begin, which is the line between professional culpa and criminal culpa. Also, 70% of doctors say they feel a great and very great fear about the real possibility of being involved in a research procedure or malpractice process. This percentage reaches 78% in the case of doctors under 50, the direct consequence is defensive medicine", Coriu told a debate on the need to amend Law no. 95/2006 and the drafting of a new law regarding the malpractice policy, an event organized by the Romanian College of Physicians, the parliamentary committees for health and the committee for defence, public order and national security in the Senate.
In the same context, CMR lawyer Nicoleta Popescu mentioned that the bill under debate proposes that a patient who believes that he/she was the victim of a malpractice case can submit a claim for compensation to the insurer that issued an insurance policy for that medical staff and to have the guarantee that he/she will obtain compensation within a reasonable period from the insurer, because he/she is the one who must pay that compensation if the doctor has concluded his policy."
The bill under discussion aims to carry out a major intervention, not only at the legislative level, by making changes to the framework law regarding health reform, but also at the structural and conceptual level regarding the approach to the issue of media malpractice in Romania, according to the president of the CMR, the initiator of the debate.