**Medical Errors: Between Knowledge and Ignorance**
The relationship between a patient and a doctor is fundamentally a human one before it is a legal one. Humanity is the cornerstone of this relationship and must remain so, regardless of the material aspects surrounding this noble profession. When a doctor provides treatment to a patient, their primary motivation should be the humanitarian aspect, which should be a priority for anyone created by God on this earth.
When doctors deviate from their imposed duties, whether those duties are imposed by law or by their profession, and fail to fulfill them properly due to evident negligence and lack of concern for the patient’s health, it becomes the doctor’s responsibility to care for the patient with utmost diligence and not to neglect the patient’s health condition.
Protecting patients from medical errors that occur due to doctors’ negligence and ensuring that there is legal accountability for these errors is crucial. The law provides patients with the right to fair and equitable legal proceedings when such errors occur due to the doctor’s negligence, failure to take necessary precautions, or not following essential safety measures that could save the patient’s life or prevent any disability that could have been avoided if the doctor had adhered to their duties.
This introduction brings us to discuss some of the issues in our society, where the medical profession faces severe attacks, including insults, defamation, self-justice, and the creation of TV shows and movies that degrade the medical profession. This is all due to medical errors committed by doctors. In our legal system, a doctor is punished if they refuse to provide treatment, and they are also punished if they make an unintentional mistake while providing treatment. How can a doctor be forced to provide treatment and at the same time be punished for an unintentional mistake?
In our society, people accept the idea of “fate and destiny” in car accidents, even if the driver was reckless and violated laws and regulations, and all related issues are resolved with a simple gesture like a cup of coffee. However, when it comes to a doctor’s mistake, we seek to impose the harshest penalties and forget the concept of “fate and destiny.” Does that make sense?
If society continues with this mentality and this primitive approach to holding doctors accountable, we will inevitably reach the destruction of the medical system, the loss of community capabilities, and contribute to the migration of talents abroad. It is important to note that medical errors occur in all countries worldwide.
We do not deny the existence of medical errors, negligence, and failure to take precautions by doctors. However, we must strive for better solutions to hold negligent doctors accountable and work towards amending the laws governing medical errors in a way that ensures patient satisfaction while considering the public interest in developing the healthcare sector.
Therefore, I propose some amendments to the governing laws, including moving away from traditional penalties (such as imprisonment) and replacing them with penalties that are proportional to the harm caused to the patient and the medical profession. These could include administrative penalties such as dismissal from the medical profession, demotion, issuing warnings, freezing the doctor’s membership with the medical association, subjecting them to intensive and rigorous retraining, requiring them to retake the medical association’s entrance exam, and providing appropriate compensation to the patient for the errors. This approach would consider both the doctor’s interest and the patient’s interest. We must not forget that this targeted group is responsible for our comfort and serves us 24/7, so any harm to this group or the system poses a danger to our society
By/radwa sherif✏️✏️📚