萬國法律事務所

Tensions between the medical profession and patients in Taiwan may soon be solved. Taiwan’s Department of Health is drafting the Medical Dispute Resolution Act and the Medical Incident Compensation Act, which will require mandatory mediation of medical disputes. Furthermore, to facilitate effective mediation, the Medical Dispute Resolution Act will also require hospitals to provide the medical records to the patient within two days when requested by patients.

Previously, in medical malpractice cases, criminal and civil cases were brought against the related medical personnel. With the Medical Dispute Resolution Act, the disputes must first be submitted to a medical dispute resolution committee of the relevant municipality. The patient, family members, medical personnel, and the mediator will have to attempt to mediate the case first. Litigation can only be brought after mediation has failed. Furthermore, hospitals will also establish cooperation teams to assist patients with the mediation process in medical malpractice cases.

The Department of Health is also planning to amend Article 82-1 of the Medical Care Act, which creates a criminal penalty when a patient’s death is caused by medical malpractice. The amendment will add the requirement of “gross negligence” before imposing criminal liability. However, the legal profession and civic groups strongly oppose this amendment, claiming that “gross negligence” is too difficult to define.

The Medical Incident Compensation Act will expand the scope of compensation. Compensation is limited to cases where the doctor did not commit medical malpractice and the highest compensation amount is NTD 2,000,000. Initially, the compensation would prioritize incidents related to surgeries, invasive treatments such as cardiac catheterization, and anesthesia.

Some, however, are questioning whether the new laws will be effective. Xian Guang Zhu of the Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation has commented that current medical malpractice litigation is time-consuming and that the quality of the mediation committee in each municipality will vary greatly. Furthermore, the issue of doctors protecting doctors remains. He hopes that the Department of Health can enact new laws to facilitate medical disputes. Dr. Wei Xian Yan of the Cheng Hsin General Hospital has commented that medicine is protected by the Drug Injury Relief Act; however, for medical malpractice cases, many patients use criminal prosecution to threaten doctors to accept settlements for unreasonable compensation. The proposed new statutes do not deal with this issue.