Our lawyer, Selahattin Par’s speech on malpractice cases was broadcasted live on Hilal TV’s ‘Step by Step First Aid Program’ on 16 January 2018.
The speech will be briefly described as explained below:
Since we are involved in many cases related to hospital, doctors and patients, there are two main complaints that is brought forward to us by the patients:
1) Doctor has applied the wrong treatment or has intervened by mistake.
2) Doctor did not enlighten us or the doctor has neglected to check us regularly.
What means MALPRACTICE?
In short, we define it as mistakes in medical practice (medical negligence). In other words, malpractices occur in situations where the physician or the health workers during the treatment, do not provide the patient with the necessary or required information or explanation as well as during the application of the treatment, they fail to provide the patient with information about risks that may arise from such treatment which are out of norm or to provide with appropriate translation and also malpractice are situations where the treatment provided by the doctor is either improper, unskilled or negligent.
With respect to situations we explained above, our advice to patients or their relatives (relatives are also responsible in circumstances where the patient is unconscious during the treatment) is that they should ensure to be ‘well-informed and conscious’ about the illness and the respective treatments.
First of all, it is necessary for the patient’s relative to ask the doctor during the examination stage about the treatment that is going to be applied on the patient in order to have full information.
One of the most important obligations of a doctor is the ‘obligation of disclosure of information (enlightenment)’.
When this obligations is preformed incompletely or inaccurately, the patient at the end of the treatment has different expectations and when those expectations are not achieved, he begins to sue the doctors with complaints such as ‘doctor’s faults’.
Since our lawyer is also the attorney of doctors; from the physician’s prospective, he mentioned: ‘Patients try to find solution for every type of ailment in the Emergency department, however the emergency department is actually available for only emergency situations; situations where if doctor does not intervene on time, the body’s vital functions may not respond or fail.’
Our lawyer, by concurrently being the attorney of the hospitals; from the hospital prospective, he has mentioned the following: ‘The hospitals have claimed that there are contradictions between the regulations and practices of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environmental Social Security. One of the most contradiction is that the Ministry of Health and the President of Turkey has stated that ‘you have to deal and provide service to any patient who comes at the emergency door’ but on the other hand the Ministry of Environmental Social Security has stated ‘when a patient who comes to the emergency department is not urgent, he should not be examined or treated’. As a result of these two statements, the hospitals are in a dilemma. When the hospital accepts those patients who are not urgent, they cannot receive the cost they had incurred for the services to that patient and moreover since the hospital has treated someone who was not urgent in the emergency department, they must pay fines to the SGK (Social Security Institution). And if the hospital rejects to examine such patients, they are faced with the consequences for failing to apply the provision of the Ministry of Health.
Therefore in such cases, our advice is orientated more towards our citizens, as a result, they have to act sensibly by attending normal polyclinics for ailments which are not urgent and can be treated at those health centres. Additionally this act causes citizens to contribute help to the critical patients who actually are in an emergency situation by allowing the doctors to have more time in providing treatments to such patients hence saving maybe more lives rather than treating any patient.
With respect to above explanations, when a patient or its close relative visits the doctor, the following issues should be taken into account:
A physician, is required,
– to examine the patient
– to diagnose the ailment accurately
– to state and explain the treatments which he is going to apply and has to explicitly indicate the results, risks and consequences that may occur.
Another issue which we would like to refer to is the ‘APPROVAL FORMS’. We recommend the citizens to please read the approval forms carefully before signing them and if there is any matter that they are not aware of or do not understand, they should ask the doctor because those forms are actually guarantees of the doctors; they make you sign the form in order to secure themselves and escape from liability. The statement of the doctor for which the approval is taken by signing is the following: ‘I have explained to this patient; his illness, his treatments, the respective results and complications that may arise and the patient has given consent to all of it’.
In conclusion, when a citizen goes to the hospital, he must try to behave with tranquility, stay calm and be more conscious since as a result such state will contribute to the solutions for many problems which arise.
