Storage of medical treatment errors

Medical malpractice: Patient representative Zoller calls for storage

In an interview with the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ), the Federal Government Commissioner for Patients, Wolfgang Zöller (CSU), demands to save medical treatment errors in a database in the future.According to Zöller, the introduction of a registration register could be enshrined in a patients' rights law and the data then made publicly accessible. For the time being, the respective events should be stored anonymously. This means that the name of the doctor in question should not appear.

The customs officer, who has been working as patient adviser since November 2009, had told the health committee of the Bundestag at the end of January that a patient rights law was to be passed in 2011. The initiative was originally launched by the SPD in the summer of 2009. The aim should be that patients affected by medical errors receive easier and immediate compensation and compensation.

In addition, according to Zöller's plans, cash-register patients should receive invoices from physicians in the future in order, among other things, to make the billing of services more transparent. With these measures and the legal background, the rights of patients will be strengthened and health insurances can better support their members in making wrong decisions. According to the General Patients' Association e.V. (APV), there are approximately 30 000 claims per year in Germany within the framework of „medical malpractice“. Furthermore, according to the APV, there are 25,000 deaths. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 15.02.2010)