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Patients need to find evidence to prove malpractice

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-28 10:09

Chinese patients who want to sue their doctors will soon be the ones under the microscope as they will be required to gather their own evidence to prove malpractice.

Currently, the doctor or hospital is required to collect evidence to prove they delivered proper medical care and didn't harm the patient.

"We'd highly welcome it," said Deng Liqiang, who heads the legal affairs department of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association. "It's in line with international practice."

"It's a basic principle of law that whoever files a lawsuit shoulders the responsibility to provide evidence to prove his or her allegation in court," he told China Daily yesterday.

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The draft changes to the tort liability law were submitted to the top legislature for a third reading yesterday.

However, not everyone agrees with the proposal.

"In the doctor-patient relationship, patients are definitely the weaker side as laymen know little about the highly professional medical science," said Fu Rong, a 28-year-old white-collar worker in Beijing

"So it's extremely hard for them to collect and provide scientific evidence to prove a doctor's malpractice," Fu said.

Under the current system, in place since 2002, there is an assumption that the medical worker or institution didn't provide the appropriate treatment or didn't perform the treatment correctly and as a result the patient experienced some harm, Deng said.

Since 2002 more than 10,000 lawsuits over medical disputes have been filed in China each year.

"It's the highest in the world and that's totally unfair to doctors and hospitals," Deng said.

"It's true that it's hard for patients when it comes to a medical lawsuit, not only in China but in the whole world. But no other country worldwide has the same practice as China," Deng noted.

Lockwood Young, a doctor in Hawaii, said in the US the patient often gets an attorney's help to establish the standard of care and show the doctor didn't meet it.

"Besides, we doctors pay high premiums for malpractice insurance in case of a medical dispute," he said.

"Medical science is unique in the sense that for doctors, even if they perform the right treatment, the outcome is sometimes out of their control," he added.

The current practice in China discourages doctors from trying new procedures with potential promise, which does hurt the interests of patients, Deng said.