The Medical Council has teamed up with the Medical Association of Thailand and doctors at staterun main hospitals across the country to ask government and related agencies to withdraw the draft bill on medicalmalpractice protection from the House of Representatives' consideration next month.
Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry yesterday decided to be a mediator between a group of doctors and a network of patients who were affected by medical errors. The ministry will organise a meeting next week to seek a resolution of the controversy over the draft bill.
But the Medical Council said it wanted the draft to be revised before it was put forward for consideration, as some articles in the current draft would be damaging to medical workers and the public health system.
Doctors at staterun main hospitals across the country yesterday also started a mass campaign against the draft bill, saying that if enacted in its present form it would increase lawsuits against doctors and destroy relationships between doctors and patients.
Meanwhile, a group of medicalmalpractice victims handed a white paper to the Medical Council yesterday pressing it not to ask the government to withdraw the draft bill from consideration.
The patients' network insisted the draft bill should be considered by the House of Representatives and that it should become law to protect patients.
However, Preeyanant Lorsermwattana, head of the patients' network, said that if the Medical Council had seen many articles in the draft bill that would adversely affect doctors, the group would favour a revision if a study could be conducted under the parliamentary committee process.
"I welcome the Medical Council's proposal to revise the draft but it must be conducted under the parliamentary procedure, and I'll be uncompromisingly against the council if it asks the government to withdraw this draft bill from consideration," Preeyanant said.
Medical Council vice president Dr Amnat Kusalanant said the council wanted a revision of the composition of the panel that will consider medicalmalpractice cases and decide on payment of compensation to victims.
Under the draft bill, the panel comprises representatives from hospitals, medical service units and patients. But the council wants to add representatives of medical professionals who could decide whether medical errors were directly caused by a doctor or not.
Amnat also said the procedure for studying the cause of medical errors under this draft was unclear. Moreover, he said the proposed nofault compensation funding could cause an unacceptable financial burden for small state hospitals.
However, he said the council would take the victims network's concerns into consideration.
At a press conference, Medical Association of Thailand president Pol LtGeneral Dr Jongjet Aojanepong called on the government to withdraw the draft bill from the House's consideration and to set up a panel comprising medical professionals and representatives of government and civic groups to discuss and carefully revise the bill before putting it forward for legislation.
He said the government should be concerned over the conflict between doctors and patients that would result if the bill became law in its current form.
In a related development, doctors at Chiang Mai province's Nakhonpink Hospital dressed in black to protest against the bill.
Dr Worachai Ungapinant, president of the Nakhonpink Hospital doctors' organisation, said doctors were afraid that the bill would destroy the relationship between doctor and patient.
"Doctors will no longer want to provide treatment to patients as they are afraid of being sued over their practice," he said.