Malpractice cases go to trial
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A bereaved husband has filed a malpractice suit against Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) and Pelni Hospital in Jakarta and PMI Hospital in Bogor, West Java, for negligence that resulted in the death of his wife Adya Vitry Harsisusanti two years ago.
The man, Indra Yacub, said on Thursday at the Central Jakarta District Court his wife died at RSCM after a doctor inserted a central venous pressure (CVP) needle into a vein in her neck. The CVP was needed to administer an anesthetic for an operation the next day.
"The doctor was not an anesthesiologist, just a general practitioner who was studying to be one," he lamented.
The other two hospitals treated his wife and had her undergo many tests and procedures without diagnosing her illness, said Yacub. The 39-year-old man demanded that the three state hospitals publish an apology in the media and pay material damages of Rp 47,324,000 (US$5,502) and nonmaterial damages of Rp 3 billion.
The court adjourned the trial for next week as the defendants were not present.
The lawsuit is one of several malpractice cases surfacing in the last few months, including that of Irwanto, a researcher at Atmajaya University in Jakarta, who became paralyzed from the waist down after receiving an enoxaparin sodium injection for a supposed cardiac problem.
Doctors in Singapore found out later on there was nothing wrong with his heart.
The police in Cirebon, West Java, are now hearing a lawsuit lodged by the family of a tumor patient who died following surgery after receiving a blood transfusion of type A blood, while her blood type was actually O.
Cirebon Police detectives chief Taufik Ansori said that there were strong indications of negligence that could be prosecuted under the criminal code.
Taufik Basari, Yacub's lawyer from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said that his suit was based on Chapter 1365 of the civil code, which obliges those violating a law and disadvantaging others to pay damages.
"The law here could mean the Health Law, the Consumer Protection Law or the law on medical ethics," said Basari.
Although people could sue for malpractice, it is difficult to proceed as there are no specific regulations regarding it.
Currently a bill on medical practice stands to be deliberated by the House of Representatives in the next session from April to July. It mentions specifically that people can sue doctors and hospitals if they feel disadvantaged by their services.
"However, it doesn't stipulate any standards on medical services to specify required tests or actions for specific diseases, and that's what we need," said Basari.
Marius Widjajarta of the Indonesian Health Consumer Empowerment Foundation said such standards should be stipulated in a government regulation under the Health Law.
"There should have been 29 regulations drafted for the Health Law, and so far we have only four," he told The Jakarta Post.
Marius further said that such standards would also protect doctors facing suits, because it would be easier to prove that they had done all that was necessary.