Les responsabilités médicales dans les services d'urgences

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this article is to present an analysis of the physicians' various obligations, in particular those regarding emergency care physicians.

Introduction: Progress in medicine can be made as long as the patients consider that they should not only receive medical care, but be cured as well. Patients no longer hesitate to hold the physician responsible for any failure in treatment.

Civil liability: The physician's liability is contractual, hence his main obligation regards that of using the necessary means to treat the patient. However, in certain cases he may also have an obligation involving safety-results; there is also the important obligation of fully informing the patient, which does not apply to emergency situations.

Criminal liability: This is a personal/individual liability which involves all physicians, as well as moral persons (clinics and medical centers). Certain offences are fairly characteristic of medical practice, An emergency care physician can be held responsible for failure to help a person in danger, or for manslaughter.

Administrative liability: Administrative liability only concerns medical activity in the public sector. In the private sector, including the public hospital, legal pursuit for individual malpractice involves the administration as a whole, which has to deal in the court of law with the charges brought against the erring physician. Administrative case law is evolving towards judicial case law. In jurisprudence, there is a trend toward liability without fault, aimed at the better compensation of victims of medical malpractice.

Ordinal liability: This concerns all physicians; however, this aspect is more complicated for those in the public sector. There are no exceptions to certain ordinal statutes, even in cases of emergency.

Special cases and a few statistics: Problems raised by resident physician/interns' responsibility, salaried practice and private hospitals have been considered. A few statistics regarding medical responsibility are given.

Conclusion: Case law, it would seem, is not impartial but mainly aims at awarding damages to the patient, sometimes to the detriment of the physician.