Bahrain drafts tough medical negligence bill

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Tabled by Conservative Salafist Bloc (Al Asala), the bill comes to fill a legislative gap as there is no law that deals with medical negligence in Bahrain, MP Abdulhalim Murad said yesterday.

According to Dr Lena Al Qasem, head of the Patient Complaint Office at the Ministry of Health, the number of patient complaints was on the rise with the office receiving 65 complaints in the first six months this year. Most complaints were by expatriates against private hospitals. Bahrainis have voiced anger against the Salmaniya Medical Complex (government owned hospital). “I have received many complaints from patients or their relatives complaining of maltreatment or wrong diagnoses by physicians at government and private sector and their cases weren’t dealt with in the proper manners because of the absence of a law to protect their rights,” he explained.

The bill consists of six chapters highlighting the duties of physicians and ordering the formation of a committee to look into medical negligence cases.

The bill forbids doctors to treat patients against their wishes, except in emergency cases such life threatening or contagious illnesses. It also stresses the privacy of patients as physicians and other medical teams shouldn’t reveal medical information of people. The draft law bans cloning and other related experiments.

 

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