Iatrogenic disease from Health Service and Reconciliation

Abstract

Damage from public health services is the result of misconceptions or errors made by medical personnel in the treatment of patients. A major cause is due to both personnel and the system. Damage is divided into loss of life, bodily damages and damages to the mind (sanitation).  Compensation for damages is a legal process, namely the Civil and Commercial Code, and compensation process by administration as followed: 1) Compensation to the victim by the state, according to Abuse of the officials Act, B.E. 2539. 2) Measures to pay for the victim, according to the Universal Coverage Act in section 41. Statistics on filing lawsuits for medical service from 1996 – 2015, found that the highest lawsuits were 241 civil cases from a total of 323 cases.  Major reason for lawsuit was medical malpractice and delivery cases. 

A case study of a woman with 8 month pregnancy affected by childbirth at a regional center hospital, who was being transferred from a community hospital with abnormal heart beat of the fetal.  It was found that the mother had complications, received a hysterectomy and her son died.  Systemic problems are caused by poor patient evaluation.  Communication is not clear between the physician and the patient relatives.  The regional center hospital had too many patients and the medical team was not able to help the transferred patient in time. The mediation process must be quick in getting all the facts from medical team before explaining to the patient and relatives about the uncontrollable factors and assist with basic compensation according to Article / Section 41. 

The policy recommendation is that the government should support the public health policy by allocating enough personnel, and emphasizes on moral ethics.  On the part of the hospital, should emphasize on developing good relationships between doctors and patients, to create a better understanding and increase the capacity of the community hospital to have the ability to provide services, and reduces congestion of the regional center hospital.