statistics for medical errors
Inaya Newspaper (Dr. Amjad Al-Hadith) Photo by (Abdulaziz Al-Rashidi) Riyadh: The Medicine and Law Forum in its second session continued its activities for the second day with three sessions and a workshop discussing the role of medical errors and professional and health insurance. The first session discussed the role of the Cooperative Health Insurance Council in developing health services and monitoring insurance companies. Dr. Abdullah Al-Sharif, Dr. Adham Omar Gad and Dr. Fahd bin Hammoud Al-Enezi spoke in it. In the second session, health facilities and their impact on quality and reducing medical errors were discussed. Eng. Subhi Abdul Jalil Batterjee and Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Qabaa. The third session discussed the role of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties in the quality of medical services, and included Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Sayegh and Dr. Saleh Al-Bishri. A workshop entitled Drafting Decisions of Health Violations Committees and Auditing the Administrative Court was held, in which the Honorable Judge Ibrahim Al Shabrami and Judge Abdul Ilah Al Suleiman from the Board of Grievances spoke.
Legal Counselor Ibrahim Al-Musaiter, Director of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Health, confirmed to (Enaya) that the Minister of Health has directed the formation of working groups to review the work of health practitioners in their workplaces through committees formed of professionals in the same specialty.
Al-Musaytir referred to (Enaya) about the importance of holding a medicine and law forum under the title of medical errors, health and professional insurance, with the participation of judges from the Board of Grievances who are specialists in examining the decisions of the violations committees. It includes a group of accounting committees that issue their decisions and which are subject to appeal in the Board of Grievances, and its implementing regulations and regulations for establishments and pharmaceuticals.
(Enaya) Dr. Saleh Al-Bishri, Chairman of the Scientific Council of General Surgery and Head of the Surgery Department at Security Forces Hospital, stated that there are no accurate and clear statistics of medical errors in the Kingdom and the Middle East that enable researchers to study the matter, referring to the reason for the existence of multiple health agencies that have different internal systems in addition to not The seriousness of health practitioners in recording medical errors, stressing the importance of having a system that guarantees quality quality while at the same time examining medical errors and disclosing them as is universally recognized.
Dr. Saleh Al-Bishri explained that the cases of medical errors in which a medical offense is proven is very few and almost negligible, with the importance of knowing that the common ground for medical errors and their causes, including failure to follow scientific principles, error, ignorance, or medical offense are overlapping circles and it is difficult to separate them in many The times.
Lawyer Ahmed Al-Muhaimid believes that any case of medical error in which there is evidence of bad faith causes it to be removed from the legitimate health authority.
Abdulaziz Al-Qabaa, Dean of the Associate College of Medicine at King Fahd Medical City said that what was announced about statistics of medical errors in newspapers (36,000 medical errors in two years) was less than expected, as he believed that the real number was equivalent to four that was announced, and he called for a system to disclose errors and ensure the quality of health services. .
Eng. Subhi Abdul Jalil Batterjee, President and CEO of the Saudi German Hospitals Group, confirmed that they have a system based on protecting the patient, the doctor and practitioners from infectious diseases through an alarm system via the hospital’s internal computers, where all infectious diseases were entered and given code numbers and linked the blood sample that analyzes the patient. The result was positive, and the device would warn practitioners with this disease.
Engineer Batterjee confirmed that when the doctor makes a mistake, he did not commit an offense until media and judicial restrictions are imposed on him, which will lead doctors to a stage of fear of the practice and thus reluctance to do so, as happens in America when the judiciary strangled the medical device and led some doctors to trade in real estate and distance from it Practice or deny serious situations.
Engineer Sobhi Batterjee demanded that the Ministry of Health compel any complainant against medical errors to pay a non-refundable insurance of between 5,000 and 10,000 riyals in case the complainant was not right in his complaint.
Lawyer Dr. Majid Qaroub, director of the Saudi Law Center, confirmed that the human rights culture in all segments of society is weak, adding that even many doctors do not know what insurance against medical errors is, not even the impact of insurance on the medical industry, indicating that insurance will help raise the quality of health services because Companies will not accept paying millions in compensation for their dealings with entities or people who cause them losses, which will prompt them to search for the best.
He pointed out that he was very upset by the media revelation about medical errors, which was adopted by one of the newspapers, considering the method of publication and the method of photographing the doctor in one of the cases of medical errors that occurred recently and was widely raised in the media as a kind of negligence and superficiality that does not provide any benefit to society.
Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Sayegh, Secretary-General of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties stated that the authority has classified 295,000 health practitioners from 85 countries and 1320 cases of fraud were discovered, 60 of them belonging to doctors, which is a very small percentage, while 16,400 cases of occupational deficiency were found to be treated with training or examinations.
Dr. Nawaf Al-Harthi, Director of Health Affairs in Hail, commented that 90% of medical errors that are published in newspapers are incorrect or exaggerated.
