10 / 35
According to Patient Safety Association data, medical errors
are among top five general death causes. 48% of errors
are surgical, and 20% are caused by wrong medicines. It
is observed that in USA, 3.4% of hospitalizations end with
undesired errors. This ratio is as much as 1.1% in UK.
Because there are no reliable statistical data in Turkey,
share of medical errors in hospitalizations are not accurately
known. However, it is estimated that they are not under
developed country averages.
In such a case, patients and their relatives who suffer from
medical errors opt for psychological relief and discharge
instead of searching for their rights, and they raid hospitals
to punish doctors and employees themselves.
Within such a chaotic work relation, “Medical Malpractice
Compulsory Financial Liability Insurance” is the sole
instrument of mitigating the pressure on doctors while
performing any medical interventions.
Through this system, doctors will be able to access their
interventions for the past ten years, and for the past 2 years
after they retire in a healthy manner instead of trying to
remember the decisions they made.
With the system, in Turkey, patients and patient relatives
are entitled to claim up to a 400,000 TL compensation from
an insurance company per patient. This can increase to
1,800,000 TL in total.
Medical Malpractice Compulsory Financial Liability
Insurance is defined as such in general terms: “This
insurance provides guarantees for physicians, dentists
and specialists (as defined in legislations), working
independently or at public or private health institutions, for
compensation claims against themselves within the term of
the contract or for the ten-year period before the contract, in
connection with damages caused due to their professional
activities while performing the professional activity defined
in the policy, also for relevant trial expenses and the interest
to be decided and for reasonable expenses related to the
compensation claims against the insured party, within limits
defined in the policy.”
Also, it is stipulated as “If insured party ends his/her
professional activity, in addition to the guarantee in the
first paragraph, claims that might arise in two years after
contract ending date, due to the professional activity within
the last insurance contract period”.
Today, even in the profession of medical doctors, which is
accepted as sacred, considering the human error factor at
times, any decisions by doctors have become questionable
in a suspected or disturbing case.
Such that; the Supreme Court, on a certain case, has
decided that “Performers of a profession or art/craft become
liable if they cause damage by not knowing a subject they
should absolutely know while performing such profession or
art/craft, or by neglecting scientifically required precautions
to prevent damage”.
However, it's inevitable to have errors where there are
human beings.
Medical Malpractice Compulsory Financial
Liability Insurance
Insurance Solutions
Business Analysis
(SBM)
Tuncay
BAĞBAŞI
EXPERT VIEW
10