Civil Liability for Medical Malpractice. Damage Resulting from Doctor’s Negligence (Breach of Professional Duties)

• Authors: Kinga Bączyk-Rozwadowska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Civil liability for medical malpractice may be attributed either to a doctor or a hospital when any of these persons’ acts or omissions cause injuries to a patient; it may be also the hospital’s liability for the damage caused by negligence of its staff (doctors and other personnel). The rules that govern this liability and the way of compensating the damage are different due to the grounds on which the doctor performs medical services and, in case of hospital’s liability, the relation between a doctor and a health care institution. A doctor who runs his private medical practice bears civil liability individually and is obliged to pay damages if any of his patient suffers injury in connection with the treatment. However, a doctor who acts as employee of a health care institution is protected by the provisions of the Labour Code and exempted from civil liability to a patient. On the other hand, a so-called independent contractor’s liability is joint and several with a hospital that has engaged him. However, case law seems to protect such doctors and treat them as hospital’s employees if certain premises are fulfilled (like de facto subordination of the doctor to the head of the ward).

Keywords

EN

medical malpractice; civil liability; pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss; independent contractor; compensation; birthrelated injuries

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Prenatal Cardiology
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 43-45

Dates

published

1 - 12 - 2015

received

28 - 9 - 2015

accepted

28 - 9 - 2015

online

5 - 3 - 2016

Contributors

author

Kinga Bączyk-Rozwadowska

• Department of Medical Law, Copernicus Univeristy Torun, Poland

References

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• 2. K. Bączyk-Rozwadowska Medical Malpractice and Compensation in Poland, Chicago-Kent Law Review 2011 (wyd. Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology), nr 3 (vol. 86)
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• 8. M. A. Jones Medical Negligence, Oxford 2003

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/pcard-2015-0008