There have been reports that Taiwan has a higher rate of doctors convicted over medical disputes than other countries. In fact, inappropriate sentencing of doctors is just one way in which Taiwan treats the medical profession unfairly.
Also far too common are insults, threats and even personal injury.
A survey my colleagues and I conducted in 2004 found that nearly half of all licensed doctors in Taiwan had been involved in a medical dispute.
Of those, 75 percent had been involved in compensation claim disputes, 31 percent had been insulted, 23 percent had been involved in lawsuits and 6 percent had suffered personal injury.
Which other "normal" industry carries such a high possibility of being insulted, physically harassed or sued?
Do those individuals or organizations who want to increase the conviction rate for doctors think this is a display of social justice?
Unfair treatment of medical professionals has made dermatology, which gives rise to fewer disputes, the most popular among young doctors, while the critical care fields dealing directly with people's survival are the least popular.
The survey showed that up to 44 percent of parents of medical school students wanted their children to be dermatologists.
In addition, many doctors were found to be dissatisfied with their departments, and two-thirds of them thought about leaving as a result of the number of medical disputes.
Around one-fourth of doctors had considered transferring to other departments, and once again dermatology was their top choice, with 30 percent of respondents preferring that field.
If outstanding professionals gradually transfer to fields less fraught with disputes, it will certainly have a negative impact on the quality of the nation's medical care.
One of the questions in the survey described a hypothetical situation where there was a 90 percent risk that the patient would die without surgery and postulated that the risk would fall to 40 percent if surgery was performed.
Generally speaking, most would have to agree that this situation would call for the operation.
And, according to the survey, if the doctors themselves were the patients, about half would choose an immediate operation, while the other half questioned said that they would leave the decision to the physician in charge of their case.
However, if the patient was someone else, only 24 percent of respondents to the poll said that they would actively advise an operation, while the rest answered that they would leave the decision to the patient's family members.
This discrepancy is the result of a defensive mentality caused by an excessive number of medical disputes.
Although operations can raise the chance of survival, a medical dispute is very likely to occur if an operation results in the patient's death.
Inappropriate medical disputes and arbitration is not only a kind of social injustice, it results in the loss of excellent doctors in the critical care field and causes doctors to take a more conservative approach to prescribing medical treatment.
These factors have a far reaching impact on the overall quality of medical care.
I hope that the public will be able to take a rational approach to medical incidents and that fair arbitration will be reached when necessary so that the quality of medical care can be guaranteed.
Lee Ping-ing is an associate professor at the Department of Pediatrics at National Taiwan University Hospital.
Translated by Ted Yang
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