A SYSTEM of fines for doctors and access to files by patients are two reforms the Irish Patients' Association are seeking, according to a report published yesterday.
The patients' pressure group has recommended that the medical profession must be more conscious of the psychological effect on the patient and family of bad communications and insensitive behaviour.
The report also recommends chat patients and their carers should have access to files without having to engage a solicitor.
It said there should be a simple and effective complaints procedure in all hospitals and patients should be represented on hospital boards.
The association has also suggested voluntary hospitals be included within the rem it of the Ombudsman and there be a reform of the legislation covering the Medical Council.
That reform should include a system of fines on doctors who are "not too bad to be struck off". It also says legislation should include a time limit within which complaints must be dealt with.
The report which was compiled by sociologist, Ms Sheila O'Connor, is severely critical of standards of medical and nursing care. It examined complaints from 70 patients and relatives, who had suffered from poor care.
More than half the complaints were from Dublin with most complaints from people aged 30 to 60 years.
Patients had a feeling of not being informed, of being degraded or powerless when things go wrong.
The Irish Patients Association is only about a year old. Given the short time it has been in existence and that it can only be contacted by post, the number of people who have contacted it indicates the need for such a support organisation, said the report.
The report states that the patients' point of view, their feelings about their illnesses and the treatment they receive is absent from medical charts. This should "form a central part of the professional assessment of, and the decisions made, in relation to any illness".