Medical students high dropout raten

The news comes amid an increase in lawsuits against doc¬tors for negligence and other complaints.

The data was revealed at a seminar yesterday to gather information and facts about the medical profession; the rights of doctors, patients and relatives; possible solutions to malprac¬tice; and draft legislation to protect those who suffer damage or injury at public health facilities.

The deputy dean of Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital, Dr Soranit Siltharm, told the seminar that the percentage of successful can¬didates for medical schools nationwide who dropped out was about 25 per cent. At Siriraj alone, the percentage was quite high at 15. This indicated that the desire to become a doctor had declined and that students with high scores were looking to other fields, he said, Chulalongkorn University was studying this phenomenon and the possible causes.

Another speaker, Dr Amnat Kusalanant, the secretarygen¬eral of the Medical Council, pointed out that more than 3,000 ethics complaints had been filed with the council against doctors over the past 17 years.

Most complaints were about substandard medical practices and exaggerated advertising with disregard for patients' safe¬ty, he said. The majority of the complaints were about doctors aged between 31 and 40.

He also revealed that there were about 600 cases awaiting consideration and that the coun¬cil would speed up the process.

The council would ensure justice for both the plaintiffs and the accused, so that patients were protected and the morale of medical professionals remained intact.

Amnat said that the growing number of lawsuits had caused some new medical graduates to switch to other work, such as medical equipment sales. Many had told him they would return to medical practice if the number of lawsuits fell.

Amnat hoped that draft leg¬islation, which includes a fund to compensate people who suffer medical damage, would be one solution to the problem.

During discussion about the draft bill, Justice Ministry per¬manent secretary Charan Phakdithanakul said he sup¬ported the idea of the fund, which would compensate vic¬tims without pointing out who was to blame. But such an approach must not have the effect of lowering medical stan¬dards.

In the case of a doctor being proven guilty of a mistake that caused a patient's death, pun¬ishment would be meted out in both civil and criminal lawsuits. The doctor's employer would be responsible for the civil suit and the doctor must take responsibility for the criminal suit, Charan said.

He also urged nonmedical sectors to find a way to amend the law so that doctors would not be subject to criminal and civil punishments unless the mistake was deliberate and done by severe recklessness. This would give doc¬tors confidence in making important decisions in cases of severe diseases and medical conditions.

A representative from the Network of Medical Malpractice Victims said the educational system that produces medical professionals had no flaws but the system to follow through and check that doctors observed ethics and the Buddhist principle of Metta Dharma was lacking.

He also said the Medical Council's request for police to ask for the coun¬cil's opinion before taking up complaints filed against doctors was a viola¬tion of people's rights.

He said people felt the council could not be relied upon, so they turned to the National Human Rights Commission for help instead, but many cases had been awaiting an NHRC decision for years.