In light of increasing lawsuits filed against physicians and the resultant rise in defensive medicine, the Legislative Yuan yesterday approved an amendment to the Medical Act (醫療法) which sets out the conditions for physicians to face criminal charges in medical disputes.
The amendment was made to Article 82 of the act, which formerly stated that “medical facilities and its paramedics should compensate for any harm they cause a patient in the course of performing their duties on the condition that the harm was intentional or a result of negligence.”
The amended article reads: “Paramedics who injure or kill a patient in the course of providing medical treatment due to negligence over items that require attention and nonclinical judgements face criminal liabilities.”
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“The two aforementioned violations should be determined after factoring in the branch of medicine practiced, the prevalent medical practice, medical skills, the condition of medical equipment used and work conditions at the time and place of the incident, as well as the urgency of treatment,” it says.
Medical facilities that harm a patient due to negligence should compensate the patient, it stipulates.
Lawmakers across party lines also lent support to two supplementary resolutions, proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), that require the Ministry of Health and Welfare to submit a draft bill before Jan. 31 that defines rules governing medical disputes, and to assist the central government in establishing unified reporting and troubleshooting systems for such disputes.
DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), who led the legislation, said the amendment was not meant to protect doctors or decriminalize negligence, but to refine the article.
The change would encourage doctors to take risks when attempting to save lives, since it prevents patients or their families who want to receive monetary compensation under the Civil Code from threatening their physician with criminal charges, Lin said.
Citing statistics compiled by the ministry, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yi-min (陳宜民) said the number of lawsuits filed against paramedics in 2014 was 3.5 times the number three decades ago: 146 per year between 1987 and 1990, and 534 from 2011 to 2014.
This has discouraged many physicians from taking up high-risk branches of medicine, resulting in a brain drain in these fields, he said.
However, New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the amendment failed to address the root cause of medical disputes.
He said that while he could relate to the premise, he doubted whether defining circumstances under which doctors face criminal liabilities would help decrease the number of lawsuits against doctors.
Now that legal action by patients is more likely to come in the form of civil lawsuits, compensation could be demanded of doctors like a “contract,” in which a party accuses another of “failing to perform an obligation,” Huang said.
“Whether my predictions will come true, I believe that time will tell,” he added.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
Chinese embassy staffers attempted to interrupt an award ceremony of an international tea competition in France when the organizer introduced Taiwan and displayed the Republic of China flag, a Taiwanese tea farmer said in an interview published today. Hsieh Chung-lin (謝忠霖), chief executive of Juxin Tea Factory from Taichung's Lishan (梨山) area, on Dec. 2 attended the Teas of the World International Contest held at the Peruvian embassy in Paris. Hsieh was awarded a special prize for his Huagang Snow Source Tea by the nonprofit Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA). During the ceremony, two Chinese embassy staffers in attendance
RSS