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Sunday, January 05, 2003
Cases worry critics of bill
By Lorenzo P. Niñal
MEDICAL practitioners in Cebu fear proponents of the pending Medical Malpractice Bill might use the recent cases of alleged negligence by some government doctors here as leverage in pushing for its approval.
Dr. Alex Galindez of the Cebu Medical Society said there is sure to be a public outcry against the alleged negligence cases now hounding doctors at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
But while the public may have reason to ask for the doctors’ heads, the cases should not be exploited in favor of the bill now pending in Congress, he said.
Dr. Mark Molina, chairman of the health and people’s rights committee of the Health Alliance for Democracy, agrees.
Molina said the cases should be treated according to their individual merits and not as something that happens in the hospitals regularly.
Both declined to comment on the deaths of two patients of CCMC and VSMMC recently, saying they don’t have particular knowledge of the former case, while the latter is now with the anti-graft office.
A couple in Liloan, Cebu filed last Friday an administrative complaint before the ombudsman against Dr. Mae Orazaga, a VSMMC physician, whom they held accountable for the death of their seven-year-old son.
They accused the doctor of signing a prescription prepared by an unidentified intern who allegedly diagnosed their child as having suffered from an inflamed tonsil. The child turned out to be suffering from dengue fever.
Burnout
CCMC doctors, for their part, also have to answer for the death of a 16-year-old boy who died while under treatment for an eye injury during last New Year’s Eve.
But if ever lapses are found on the part of the doctors, Galindez said, they are not entirely to blame as various other factors are also to be considered.
This includes the possibility of doctors being burned out at work, where patients greatly outnumber hospital workers.
Doctors working in this environment become vulnerable to errors.
If enacted, House Bill 4955, or the Medical Malpractice Act of 2002, will penalize medical
malpractice among licensed medical practitioners with imprisonment of six to 12 years and a fine of P500,000 to P1 million.
Their license to practice the medical profession will also be cancelled.
Arguments against the bill said the government should improve the overall health care system in the country instead of focusing on penalizing erring medical practitioners.
Doctors lamented that a bigger chunk of the national budget goes to defense, with health listed only at the bottom of the priority list.
Besides, medical societies and doctors’ organizations already police their own ranks and recommend penalties before the Professional Regulations Commission.
(January 5, 2003 issue)
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