Patient rights New law passed

New law on the protection of patients' rights adopted

23/05/2012

After years of struggling for details, the Patients' Rights Act was passed on Wednesday. The law aims to enable patients to better enforce their rights in the future, among other things, in case of treatment errors. While the federal government emphasizes the improvements made by the new law, patient protection organizations and opposition critics do not go far enough.

The Federal Cabinet has today launched the draft of the Patients' Rights Act, which. Should come into force at the beginning of next year. Both the Federal Minister of Justice and the Federal Minister of Health emphasized the advantages of the new law with regard to the proof of treatment errors. However, a general reversal of the burden of proof, as required by the patient protection organizations, is not provided for, so that in case of doubt, the patients first have to justify the suspicion of a gross treatment error.

Controversy over the burden of proof in case of treatment errors
The lack of reversal of the burden of proof under the new Patients' Rights Act was not only a clear criticism for the opposition politicians. Here the patients would be left in the rain and missed opportunities for fundamental changes, so the accusation on the part of the opposition parties. The executive committee of the patient protection organization Deutsche Hospiz Stiftung, Eugen Brysch, was also dissatisfied with the adopted cabinet draft and stated: „We need a stringent reversal of the burden of proof, which is not just limited to gross treatment errors.“ However, representatives of the medical associations were quite relieved in view of the moderate rules on the burden of proof in case of possible treatment errors. For them, the general reversal of the burden of proof would have meant a considerable amount of red tape, since the treatment steps would have had to be documented much more accurately than before. Reports the „Doctors newspaper“ According to the delegates of the 115th German Medical Association made a joint statement, pointing out that „in the foreground the treatment of the patients and not the documentation of all before, during and after the treatment caused measures stand“ got to. Additional bureaucracy „binds valuable time, which should be used primarily for the treatment“, so the position of the doctors.

Health insurance companies must support patients with expert opinions
The Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) defended the limited reversal of the burden of proof in the current cabinet draft by pointing out that this „ultimately a risk avoidance culture“ lead, „Doctors should continue trying to do everything possible to help their patients.“ According to the minister, the quality of treatment would have suffered from even more extensive legal regulations. Also, the relationship between doctor and patient should not be burdened by the legal requirements, Bahr continues. The Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP), however, emphasized the benefits of the current bill and said that this was the first federal government, here a clear „creates legal foundations.“

For more than ten years, the parties in the Bundestag discussed without result about ways to strengthen patient rights. Now, with the current draft, the health insurances are at least obligated to support patients who are suspected of having a treatment error through medical reports. In addition, the previous case law is included in the new Patient Rights Act, so that the burden of proof „Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger explained one of what she considers to be essential points of the new law, according to which the physicians are now obliged to prove their correct course of action in the event of suspected gross medical errors.

Education of patients required
In addition to the regulations for dealing with treatment errors, the Patient Rights Act also provides for some basic requirements for the protection of patients. For example, as of next year, doctors are urged to provide their patients with comprehensive information about the upcoming treatment, and the possible treatment risks must also be explained in detail. (Fp)

Picture: sparkie