Doctor's liability for incorrect diagnosis or treatment. What to do and how to punish?

Any citizen has the right to file a complaint or other appeal to Roszdravnadzor if a medical institution has violated his rights in the field of healthcare. The purpose of such a document is to initiate verification of the quality and safety of medical activities. The agency is obliged to provide a response to the complainant within 30 days from the date of registration of the complaint.

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In what cases is a complaint filed?

The work of public and private medical institutions, as well as pharmacies, is controlled by the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare. The features and procedure for conducting this activity and the rights of citizens are prescribed in the Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ. The department is obliged to consider the appeal if it concerns treatment, provision of free medications, or rehabilitation of patients.

A citizen can complain to Roszdravnadzor, for example, in the following cases:

• The rights of citizens to receive free medical care, medicines, and rehabilitation products have been violated.
• The doctor who refused treatment misdiagnosed me.
• The medical institution refused to issue a referral for surgery.
• The private clinic violated the terms of the paid agreement with the patient.

The list of situations is incomplete.

For your information! In addition to Roszdravnadzor, a citizen can contact the prosecutor’s office, court, Rospotrebnadzor, insurance company, FFOMS.

Responsibility of a doctor for committing unlawful acts

After identifying violations on the part of doctors, patients do not understand what will happen if they complain about the actions of a doctor in the clinic.

The legislator provides several types of liability for doctors, taking into account the nature of the violations:

• disciplinary;
• civil law;
• administrative;
• criminal

Moreover, each type of liability may provide for both restrictions on the doctor and his activities, as well as specific encumbrances, up to and including termination of work.

For example, if a doctor makes an incorrect diagnosis, the patient can sue for moral and material damage under Art. 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, since such a violation can lead to both mental suffering of a person and serious, unnecessary costs for medications.

Another example is the measure of criminal liability for causing harm to a patient through negligence, which involves several types of sanctions: forced labor, imprisonment for up to four years, as well as deprivation of medical practice for a period of up to three years.

How to file a complaint to Roszdravnadzor

The complaint form is not established by law, so it can be written in free form. The main thing is to follow the standard structure for a complaint: header, descriptive part, request. The text should not contain colloquial or colloquial expressions or emotionality. It is recommended to write a complaint using a formal business style of speech.

The document must contain the following information:

1. Addressee's name. You must indicate the name of the territorial body of the department for which the complaint is intended.
2. Who is this appeal coming from? Information about the applying citizen or organization. An individual must indicate his full name, passport details, registration address, and telephone number for contact. If, instead of an individual, the complaint is filed by his representative by proxy, then its details must also be indicated. A legal entity indicates the name, legal address, telephone number, full name and position of the person acting on behalf of the organization.
3. The essence of the violation that occurred. Describe the circumstances of the dispute, indicate information about the medical or pharmacy institution, full names of doctors, date and other important information.
4. The results of contacting other departments, if any (for example, contacting the chief physician of a medical institution).
5. A request to conduct an inspection and take the necessary measures.
6. Links to legislative acts.
7. Attachments to the complaint. This is documentary evidence of a violation of the rights of patients, if such papers are available (sick leave certificates, correspondence with a medical institution, prescription forms, copies of pages of a medical record, checks for payment for medical services, etc.). You can also attach audio and video materials.

The complaint ends with the signature of the person applying. They also indicate the date of submission of the document to Roszdravnadzor.

Where to call to complain about an ambulance?

How and where to file a complaint

A complaint must be filed with the territorial body of Roszdravnadzor. You can do this in three ways:

1. Personal visit to the department. The citizen himself or his authorized representative comes to the department for an appointment; you need to have an identification document with you, as well as 2 copies of the complaint. On one of them, the employee receiving the documents will mark the receipt of the second copy and leave it to the citizen.
2. By post. Documents must be sent by registered mail with a description of the contents and receipt of receipt. This notification will confirm the department's receipt of the letter.
3. Electronically. In this case, the complaint is submitted through the public services portal or the Roszdravnadzor website. To do this, you need to provide all the necessary data, write your request in a special field, attach supporting files and submit the form.

For your information! Complaints and other requests received by the department are considered within 30 days from the date of their registration.

Roszdravnadzor is obliged to give a written response to the applicant. It indicates what measures were taken, whether orders to eliminate violations were issued, etc.

Sample complaint to Roszdravnadzor from a legal entity

To the Territorial body of Roszdravnadzor for the UR address: 426039, Izhevsk, st. Dzerzhinsky, 3 from the general director of Perpetual Motion LLC, address: 426009, Izhevsk, st. Partizanskaya, 156, office. 14 tel.

Complaint

I, General Director of Eternal Engine LLC, Nikolaev Sergey Sergeevich (TIN 1834561231, KPP 234123123, OGRN 3451236784563, legal address: 426009, Izhevsk, Partizanskaya st., 156, office 14, tel.: 8 ( 3412) 76-43-21), entered into an agreement with the private clinic “Doctor Profi” (Doctor Profi LLC, INN 5612341231, legal address: 426005, Izhevsk, Elochnaya St., 123) to conduct a medical examination of my workers.

On November 12, 2021, employees of Perpetual Motion LLC underwent a medical examination. The examination of the surgeon and dentist took place in inappropriate conditions, the office was dirty, doctors Voronov A.V. and Sokolov E.K. were without gowns and medical masks. Also on November 13, 2021, the blood test results of three of my employees were lost, one result was false.

Based on the above, I ask that state control be carried out on the quality and safety of medical activities in terms of compliance with the procedures for providing medical care and the standards of Doctor Profi LLC in relation to employees of Perpetual Motion LLC.

Please inform me of the results of the inspection of the quality and procedure for providing medical care by mail to the address indicated above.

Application:

1. Contract for medical examination dated November 10, 2020 No. 234 for 2 pages.
2. Blood test results from November 13, 2021 (with incorrect values) for 1 liter.
3. Results of blood tests dated November 15, 2021 (in correct indicators) per 1 liter.
4. Photos of medical offices where patients are received for 5 years.

Nikolaev / S.S. Nikolaev

"19" November 2021

Features, characteristics of the crime

In judicial practice, cases related to the field of medicine are considered particularly complex.

First of all, it is worth distinguishing between the concepts of “medical error” and “negligence”.

Medical error is the actions of a doctor that are unintentional . As a rule, behind such a mistake there is a desire to help the patient. The reliability of diagnosis and subsequent treatment can be influenced by various factors:

• individual characteristics of the course of the disease;
• misleading a doctor by a patient who provided incomplete or unreliable information about symptoms and his or her well-being;
• an error made due to a malfunction of medical equipment;
• inexperience of the doctor (especially if the doctor is a young specialist with little experience).

It is worth considering that a medical error presupposes the conscientious performance of official duties.

Negligence is a doctor’s neglect of his duties, including laziness and inattention. The consequence of a doctor’s negligence in his duties can be the death of a person.

Medical negligence involves an irresponsible, indifferent attitude to one’s responsibilities, often based on the desire to realize one’s mercantile interests.

For example, in a paid clinic, a doctor may deliberately mislead a patient in order to obtain material benefits.

So, medical negligence is a punishable act associated with dangerous consequences for the life and health of the patient.

First of all, you need to establish whether the mistake was made through the fault of the doctor or not. A medical examination is carried out to determine the origins of the error.

Experts, using research data, recreate the patient’s condition, comparing the data obtained with the diagnosis and treatment provided. If the incorrect diagnosis was made due to the negligence or inattention of the doctor, then he should be held accountable.

Statistics

Normative base

A complaint against a doctor at the ministry is considered in accordance with the instructions, which were approved by order of the Ministry of Health No. 493n, approved on June 28, 2015. This document outlines how to file a claim and how to handle them. However, the order is only a regulation for a government agency.

For your information

When drawing up a petition, a citizen will need to familiarize himself with some other laws. Footnotes to current legislation will make the document more convincing. This is a way to confirm that the doctor acted improperly. Due to the complexity of such references, many legal services firms offer assistance in drafting such documents. However, such intervention is not necessary. A personal complaint against a doctor to the Ministry of Health will also be considered.

The applicant should pay attention to:

• Constitution of the Russian Federation. In Art. 41 there are general provisions that establish the right to timely medical care.
• Federal Law on the “Fundamentals of Protecting Citizens’ Health” No. 323 of November 21, 2011. Here the duties of the attending physician are described in Art. 70, but there are many other articles that can be used to strengthen the appeal.
• Federal Law “On Compulsory Health Insurance” No. 326 of November 23, 2010. Footnotes to this document will be required if it is necessary to consider the insurance case, as well as in the event of its refusal.
• Criminal Code. Articles for review – 118, 236, 237 and 293. All of them are related to harm to the patient’s health. However, such cases should first of all be considered by law enforcement agencies, and not by the Ministry of Health.

Attention:
Based on these legislative acts, you can write a more convincing complaint, which will be followed by an inspection. Please note that petitions are sent to the Ministry of Health if there is evidence of illegality of the actions of a particular employee. However, even if you suspect such actions, you can submit an application with a request to start an inspection.