The scope of a doctor’s civil liability depends on the form of his employment. It is also an extremely important aspect for Patients, because before bringing an action, they should obtain knowledge about how to hire a doctor who made a mistake in order to correctly identify a defendant. Suing a doctor employed under an employment contract for a medical error that he or she was supposed to have committed while performing work will result in the lack of passive passive ID on his side.
This means that such a doctor cannot de facto be the defendant in this case – he cannot act on the defendant’s side. It is difficult to clearly indicate which form is better for the doctor. It depends on the individual preferences of the person concerned. Certainly, the employment contract looks more favorable in terms of civil liability (compensation).
Employee responsibility
However, when choosing employment on the basis of a contract, you should start with an intensive reading of the terms and conditions of third party liability insurance. Patients’ interest in directing claims for compensation in medical matters is becoming more common every year. Therefore, choosing a policy with a low sum insured for one incident may turn out to be a dramatically costly mistake for a physician.
Medical practitioners may have different types of responsibility. Including employee, civil, criminal and professional liability.
Regulations related to liability for damage caused by an employee are regulated in the provisions of the Labor Code. If a doctor is employed under an employment contract and in the performance of his duties related to the employment relationship causes harm to the patient, the relevant provisions of the Labor Code will apply.
Criminal liability for medical error
The prerequisites for the criminal liability of doctors are: medical malpractice, negative consequences for the health or life of the patient specified in individual provisions of criminal law, a causal relationship between the error and negative consequences, the doctor’s fault. The error may take the form of a diagnostic error, which should be understood as drawing conclusions from the disease symptoms other than those dictated by medical knowledge.
It may consist in not recognizing certain symptoms at all, as well as in the incorrect conduct of the tests themselves to establish the diagnosis, or the omission of such tests at all. The essence of the error is that the action or omission is contrary to the basic principles adopted in modern medical science. Medical malpractice is an objective category, i.e. it depends only on the state of medical knowledge at a given stage of the development of this knowledge. The state of medical knowledge allows us to judge whether a certain action or omission by a physician was correct or not.
Liability
This liability is intended to compensate for the damage suffered by the injured patient. It may take the form of property and non-pecuniary liability, as well as current and future damage.
Professional responsibility
This is a special type of responsibility that physicians are subject to as members of the public trust profession. In the case of professional liability cases, judgments are issued by disciplinary courts acting as bodies of District Medical Chambers. The appeal body in this case is the Supreme Medical Court.