A draft act for the prevention and resolution of medical malpractice proposed by the Executive Yuan would be a step backward from the current mechanism for solving medical disputes, the Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation said yesterday.
The Legislative Yuan in December last year passed an amendment to Article 82 of the Medical Act (醫療法), which sets out conditions under which physicians can face criminal charges and civil liability in medical disputes, federation chairperson Joanne Liu (劉淑瓊) said.
The amendment also required the Executive Yuan to propose a specialized act regulating medical disputes, but the legislative review of the proposed act was on May 9 postponed due to controversies, she said.
The Childbirth Accident Emergency Relief Act (生產事故救濟條例) requires healthcare facilities to set up mediation task forces, but the foundation found that only 18 percent of patients in medical disputes this year have made use of the mechanism and 62 percent of them were unsatisfied with hospitals’ mediation, Liu said.
Three key aspects of a diversified two-way medical dispute resolution mechanism pilot program conducted by the Ministry of the Justice and the Ministry of Health and Welfare are not included in the draft act, she said.
The key aspects are: professional evaluation before mediation, holding a mediation meeting within 45 days, and having medical and legal professionals in the mediation committee, Liu said.
The draft act also lacks the key elements necessary to give patients and their families a sense of trust in hospitals’ mediation mechanism, and loosens regulations that require medical facilities with 100 or more beds to set up a mediation task force, she said, urging legislators to review the bill carefully.
Experience shows that some patients and their families could secretly record medical practitioners’ statements during mediation sessions and use them as evidence in court, Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said.
Therefore, the draft act stipulates that statements made during mediation sessions may not be used as evidence in court litigation, to reduce tension between medical practitioners and patients during the process, he said.
The draft act requires healthcare facilities with 100 or more beds to set up a mediation task force, but that does not mean that disputes at facilities with fewer beds would be neglected, as there are professional groups that can assist in these cases, Shi said.
He said the draft act covers a wider range of medical disputes than the Childbirth Accident Emergency Relief Act, adding that the foundation might have misunderstood the proposed act.
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