An advocacy group will today petition the United Nations to force Thai authorities to comply with a World Health Organisation (WHO) agreement in making public information on medical malpractice.

Preeyanant Lorsermwatthana, a coordinator of the Network of Victims of Medical Malpractice, said the Public Health Ministry had made little progress in implementing the WHO protocol since Thailand ratified it in 2002, while self-governing medical bodies in Thailand seemed to simply ignore it.

She said the network's research found there were around 10,000 people dying as a result of medical mistakes each year, apart from numerous injuries and disabilities. "The statistics have somehow been covered up, making any court cases in which patients sue doctors high-profile issues whenever they are reported," she said.

Preeyanant has been fighting a court battle against a leading private hospital over her son's disabled leg caused, she alleges, during delivery 15 years ago. She said the WHO had studied and found that revealing information about medical malpractice helped prevent the same mistakes from recurring.

The petition will include four demands: a new public information law that allows relatives of victims to obtain detailed information about malpractice from hospitals at fault without conditions; a new independent body to openly study medical treatments in question and to identify mistakes made; the setting up of a government-sponsored fund to compensate victims of maltreatment in both state and private hospitals; and the inclusion of all medical mistakes in curriculum in medical schools and in all public information services.

Preeyanant said she did not intend to find fault with doctors and nurses or create legal wars with them by filing the petition on World Health Day today. "We just don't want to see more Thai people victimised by medical mistakes with no one being held responsible," she said.

Citing a WHO reference on information, she said widespread revelations about faulty medical treatment in most developed countries had proved to reduce the number of cases regarding medical malpractice, legal battles between patients and medical staff and a decrease in deaths and disabilities caused by medical mistakes. 

The WHO launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety in October 2004 in response to a World Health Assembly Resolution (2002) urging member states to pay the closest possible attention to the problem of patient safety.