Settlement Process-First before Medical Malpractice Suit

The law on the coordination of medical conflicts was drawn up under which when a conflict arises between doctors and patients, they should go through settlement process, and doctors who committed slight mistakes in practicing medicine are exempted from criminal punishment.

The special committee for development of medical system, a president’s advisory committee, said on Oct. 6 that it held a meeting of its subsidiary expert committee for medical policies, in which it corrected the draft of the law on the coordination of medical conflicts, which came out in September, and decided to introduce the bill to the plenary session of the committee.

The expert committee for medical policies agreed on the principle that the government should make the minimum compensation to the victim in unpreventable medical malpractices in order to prevent medical conflicts. The compensation will come from a fund made up of the government, the National Health Insurance Corporation, health care providers, and the relief fund for accidents arising from pharmacy.

According to the draft, the government should pay a compensation of up to 20 million won to the victim from its budget.

The expert committee finally decided to introduce the settlement-first clause to keep the economic and time cost of the medical conflict to the minimum by protecting the victim’s right and creating a stable environment for medical practice.

Considering the aspect of the public good of medical practices, the subcommittee agreed that criminal punishment exemption should be limited to slight medical malpractice, which is less subject to social criticism.

In addition, it was unanimously favorable to introducing a mutual aid association for compensation in medical malpractice and liability insurance plan for compensation in order to help doctors work in a secure atmosphere and victims get compensation rapidly.

The special committee for development of medical system will present the bill to the National Assembly in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare after it decides upon it in its plenary session. The bill was sponsored by the government and lawmakers respectively in 1995 and 1997, but failed to pass into law, due to different opinions over the criminal punishment exemption among government agencies.

Jin Lee leej@donga.com