Legal Corner: Doctor’s responsibility for medical errors Thursday, 19 May 2011 04:18

by Abdelaal A Khalil

The Law No 2 of 1983, concerning the practice of professions of medicine and dental medicine and surgery in Qatar, states:

“The doctor is not responsible for the result desired by the patient if it is found that the due diligence has been given and the doctor resorted to all means of which anyone in their place can use to diagnose the disease and for the treatment.”

It is thus clear that the role of the physician is not to achieve the healing which the patient wants, but their role is limited to the exercise of due diligence in their work and performance to the fullest in order to cure the patient and relieve him of the pain or the disease which has infected the patient.

The standard of care referred to is an objective criterion and not a personal one in the sense that when the issue of the doctor’s responsibility for what went wrong for the patient or not is raised, we shed light on the role played by the doctor in comparison to the role which is supposed to be done by a doctor amid doctors in this area.

We will not compare the doctor’s behaviour with the behaviour of the doctor - a genius or an expert doctor and will not compare it with the behaviour of doctors who neglect their duties.

This includes the conditions in which the doctor is treating the patient and his health in addition to medicine and tools available to the doctor.

If it is proven that the doctor has performed their role in the treatment of the patient in the same way as any other doctors, they cannot be responsible for the result of not curing the patient as long as they have given the due diligence in order to achieve that end.

Medical errors are known worldwide and its rate is very small in Qatar in comparison with the countries of the world. In England, one of the medically advanced countries, medical errors are considered the third or fourth cause of death.

Therefore, the law pointed out that the doctor’s responsibility arises in the following cases:

“The doctor shall be liable if they made a mistake resulting in harm to the patient, especially in the following circumstances:

A - If the error was a result of ignorance of technical matters that the doctor should assume both in terms of diagnosis or description of appropriate treatment.

B - If the cause of harm to the patient was negligence or lack of due diligence.

C - If the cause of damage to the patient was that experience and scientific research made by the doctor are not supported technically.

The person committing the error, whether a doctor, nurse or others, shall be penalized if the error is intentional or just simple negligence but if the error was intentional or was considered as a serious professional negligence, the punishment is up to the point of dismissal and the withdrawal of the license.

Adoption of the patient and the doctor’s responsibility.

It is worth mentioning in this investigation the request of a doctor in private clinics or specialists in hospitals to approve the signing of the patient’s consent to a surgical or medical examination.

The fact that the signing of the patient on this declaration does not exempt the doctor from their responsibility for damage to the patient if it is proved that responsibility was in accordance with the conditions and regulations referred to.

However, this recognition represents the only approval from the patient to treatment or surgery only in a particular hospital or clinic only, knowing that the patient’s consent and acceptance of a medical service is the tacit approval which can be inferred from the patient’s condition, which requires treatment.

 Criminal Penalty

 Article 22 of Law No. 2 / 1983 concerning the practice of professions of Medicine and Dental Medicine and Surgery states:

“Without prejudice to any severer penalty provided for by law, a doctor is fined with maximum five thousand riyals if they if they made a mistake resulted in harm to the patient in case the error was a result of ignorance of technical matters that the doctor should assume or if damage to the patient caused by negligence of doctor or experiments and scientific research made by the doctor on the patient are not approved.

Alternatively, the court may issue its judgment to close or forfeit as the case may be upon the breach of the provisions of articles.