The result of criminal law actions on physicians – a defensive medicine?

Katarína Fedorová¹, Oto Masár², Margita Rybánska³
¹Masaryk University Brno, Faculty of Law, Czech Republic ²Faculty of Medicine Comenius University Bratislava, Department of Urgent and General Medicine, Slovak Republic ^{13/sup>University of Alexander Dubček in Trenčín, Slovak Republic}

Korespondenční autor: Oto Masár (otomasar@voila.fr)

ISSN 1804-7181 (On-line)

Full verze:

Submitted:5. 5. 2014
Accepted: 24. 6. 2014
Published online: 15. 7. 2014

Summary

In recent years there is an increasing number of complaints and criminal information on health care provided by physicians. The driving force behind the increased number of complaints and criminal information leading towards physicians is usually not a rational basis – poor quality of work, but a targeted campaign directed towards the negative side of legal awareness raising of patients comprising in encouraging of patients to submit complaints and criminal information on physicians with the aim to reach the financial profit for the alleged injury. The state which does not provide such legislation, which would be responsible for errors clearly defined and limited the possibilities of how to create from the lawsuits against health care workers a profitable business or the means of revenge, has been leading to an effort to choose by physicians such procedures that are expensive and not very beneficial. Medicine has to work always with certain assumptions and the complete exclusion of errors or complications at medical procedures is never possible. Defensive medicine is a method of protecting physicians against possible legal action by unnecessary examinations, unnecessary hospitalizations, omitting certain medical procedures that could “jeopardize” the physician, or vice versa, suggesting some steps that are legally “clean” for the doctor, but could be inappropriate for the patient… and possibly dangerous.

Keywords: physician; criminal act; investigator; prosecutor

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