AMMAN — Medical malpractice can leave a patient
scarred for life, but proving negligence on the part of a doctor or nurse can
be hard to do, leaving patients out to dry during a time when doctors say the
pandemic has pushed them to their limits.
اضافة اعلان
Mustafa Mansoor, head of the
Jordan Association for Protection Against Medical Errors, claimed that he lost
most of his vision due to medical malpractice.
“I pressed charges 11 years ago
after losing vision fully in my right eye, with only 3 percent remaining in the
left eye, and my claim remains in court to this day,” he told
Jordan News.
“This was my incentive to establish the association to encourage patients to
speak up about their cases of medical negligence.”
There are laws and regulations
to protect people from malpractice in Jordan, but Mansoor said that lengthy court
proceedings can drag on for years sometimes, dissuading people from pressing
charges.
According to Article 5 of the Medical Liability
Law, service providers are required to perform according to the requirements of
the morals, accuracy, and loyalty of the profession.
As the Medical Liability Law states, medical
negligence occurs when providers, including doctors, orthodontists, nurses,
anesthesiologists, and psychologists do not meet a professional standard, which
results in a patient being harmed.
“There is a difference between a medical error
and a medical complication. A medical error is (caused by) negligence by the
doctor. If negligence by the doctor is proven, then it is a medical error. If
not, it is a medical complication,” ophthalmologist Othman Abbadi said in an
interview with
Jordan News.
Ahmad Sarahneh, head of the health committee at
the Lower House said that “Postoperative medical complications are far
more common than medical negligence, and are inevitable. Some of those include
surgical errors such as internal bleeding during surgery, operation wound
infection, and birth injuries, such as excessive bleeding during or after
childbirth.”
And while doctors are not held accountable for
medical complications, they are responsible for medical malpractice,
negligence, or errors.
“Three major elements are leading causes of
medical errors including the lack of experience on the part of the medical
staff; unreasonable hours of work leading to fatigue, the inability to resume
efficiency in providing medical care to the patient, and treating patients
outside of one’s medical specialty,” added Sarahneh.
Amid the pandemic and a surge in patients,
fatigue has been one of the leading causes of medical errors, according to general
doctor Mohammad Rasool Tarawneh.
“One of the leading causes of medical negligence
recently has been the exhaustion and burnout of many doctors during the
pandemic, and the high demand of medical care from patients, with the low supply
of medical staff and medical equipment,” Tarawneh said in an interview with Jordan
News.
Tarawneh added that an increase in medical staff
and beds in medical institutions could improve the efficiency of operations and
ensure the patient’s safety. In addition, working hours must be reasonable, and
enough break time is mandatory for the medical staff, especially in crowded
hospitals.
Abbadi agreed, claiming that he regularly receives 25 patients, and on some days 50, during which he
experiences fatigue.
“It is crucial to limit the number of working
hours and the number of patients per day to prevent burnout, and to ensure that
the patient is receiving the proper care without risking the presence of any
medical malpractice,” said Abbadi.
When it comes to dealing with cases of malpractice, Jordan
does have laws and regulations protecting patients.
“Cases of medical malpractice are dealt with in
court, in the Ministry of Health, or in the Medical Syndicate. A committee is
formed to concur whether this is a medical error and examine its
complications,” said Sarahneh.
Mohammad Barbarawi, chairman of the Jordanian
Doctor’s Syndicate’s committee for establishing the profession, said that a failure
to provide patients with necessary treatment options, whether surgically or
medically, increases the incidence of a medical error.
As such, poor medical performance could lead to
minor complications, major complications, or in some cases, death, and courts
in Jordan deal with each case differently.
“In the event of a medical error, the
complainant's statements are heard, and the patient’s file is requested to be
examined fully from the beginning of the treatment to the stage of complaint,
and in the case of any witnesses, they are summoned, and regulations and laws
govern the final verdict,” said Barbarawi.
In the syndicate’s law, penalties and
punishments range from warnings, revocations of medical licenses and
certificates, suspensions, compensatory fines, and prison sentences that may
range from weeks to months, depending on the severity of the situation and harm
suffered by the patient.
“In the case of recurrence of a medical error,
the physician will be suspended from working for a period of time until further
notice by the court, or his/her medical license will be withdrawn,” said
Sarahneh.
Barbarawi added that Jordanian doctors suffer
from low pay, which does not match up with the six years of medical school
along with a year in a residency program, unpaid internships, and hours they
have to work, which can sometimes.
However, Barbarawi added
that the Doctors’ Syndicate is not enough to regulate the sector fully and “an
independent and strict institution must be created to monitor each doctor
separately.''
Read more National
.jpg)
.jpg)
