NGOs say new bill on medical services to protect doctors

NGOs say new bill on medical services to protect doctors

2Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A bill on medical services would allow patients to sue doctors
for malpractice, but a coalition of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) said on Wednesday the draft law protected
doctors rather than patients.

The bill says patients who are disadvantaged by medical
workers can sue them through the Indonesian Medical Council
(KKI), which will determine if a case should be regarded as
negligence, accident or malpractice.

According to article 91 (2) of the bill, patients can sue
doctors for, among other things, negligence due to a lack of
professional knowledge and competence, failure to act in
accordance with medical standards and violations of medical
standards.

"With this bill, patients will be protected from improper
services provided by doctors," the deputy chairman of House of
Representatives Commission VII, Sanoesi Tambunan, said.

The Indonesian Medical Council will comprise 25 members, 15 of
them doctors, four representatives of the Ministry of Health,
four representatives of the Ministry of National Education and
two representatives of the general public.

But a coalition of six NGOs, including the Indonesian Health
Consumers Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI) and the Indonesian
Consumers Foundation (YLKI), called on the public to reject the
bill, saying the draft law was proposed to protect doctors from
lawsuits.

"The fact that the only people who can find doctors guilty are
their own peers will result in a conflict of interest. No doctors
will be willing to testify against their peers, because they will
seek to protect their own," the coalition said.

The coalition said that patients were in a disadvantageous
position because they had no solid basis to sue doctors, due to
an absence of medical service standards.

"All cases have been regarded as accidents so far as the
country has no standard for medical services," the coalition
said.

The NGOs also criticized what they called lenient penalties to
be imposed on doctors found guilty of violating the professional
code spelled out in the bill. The penalties, they said, did not
match the losses suffered by patients.

They said the country was in need of a regulation on medical
services instead of a bill on the medical practice in order to
protect both patients and the rights of doctors.

"We don't even have the regulations to implement Law No.
23/1992 on health, particularly much-needed government
regulations on medical standards," the coalition said.

Key articles:

Article 91: Patients can sue doctors for, among other things,
negligence due to a lack of professional knowledge and
competence, failure to comply with the standards of the medical
profession and violations of the standards of the medical
profession, drug addiction, obscenity, discriminatory treatment,
refusal to provide services for unacceptable reasons, conducting
abortions without a solid medical basis and opening illegal
medical clinics.

Article 92: Complaints must be filed two years at the latest
after a medical action is performed.

Article 136 (9): Sanctions can be in the form of the
revocation of medical licenses or assignment letters for up to
one year, and compulsory education in medical school.

Source: Bill on the medical practice