Reforms are planned to allow patients to seek compensation for medical negligence without having to go through the courts, the hospital consultants' a.g.m. has heard. The Department of Health will set up medical review panels to assess such claims, according to the general secretary of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick. Such actions are usually fought in the High Court.
"Both doctors and patients would get a fair hearing quickly and legal costs would be reduced. This foot-dragging has to end," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
The a.g.m. called for the publication of a Department report on medical malpractice insurance, commissioned more than five years ago.
Consultants are paying £4 million to insure themselves against malpractice claims and the cost to the Department to insure consultants working in public hospitals is £17 million. Panels would include a representative for the patient and the doctor, and an independent chairman, according to Mr Fitzpatrick.
They could make awards, and patients could accept them or decide to go through the courts. "It is quick and inexpensive and justice is done quickly," said Mr Fitzpatrick.
The conference was also warned of fatal flaws in proposed changes in the mental health legislation. Dr Margot Wrigley, a psychiatrist in the Mater Hospital, said there were two areas of major weakness in the proposals contained in the White Paper on mental health, although "much of what has been included is excellent".
The proposals meant there was an increased risk of attack on and injury of a psychiatrist in charge of admitting dangerous patients without Garda support.
The proposals also mean that the courts might order the transfer of mentally ill patients from the penal system to psychiatric units. "This is happening in the UK and the psychiatric units they are being sent to are completely unsuitable. In Ireland it would affect general hospitals when the courts send patients to units there, making it unsafe for patients and staff," said Dr Wrigley.
Meanwhile, the Department was also called on to commission a study on the cost-effectiveness of using waiting lists to curtail hospital expenditure.
Mr Frank Cunningham said waiting lists had not dropped below 25,000 "despite so-called waiting list initiatives".
"It would seem that there is now such a thing as an acceptable waiting list. Patients are entitled to be seen as early as possible with an outpatient's appointment with a consultant. It is unacceptable that they would then have to wait for one year or two years or more on a waiting list," said Mr Cunningham, a surgeon at Naas General Hospital.
He told the conference that the situation had reached a stage where GPs "in desperation" were sending patients on waiting lists to accident and emergency departments. "They are sending them in the hope that somebody will recognise their problem as serious or as a way to get around the waiting list," said Mr Cunningham.