Medical societies speak out against court’s conviction of doctors

Kiang Wu Hospital

Medical practitioner associations have voiced their opposition regarding the convictions of two doctors in a medical malpractice case.
The medical lawsuit – in which an attending doctor and assistant at the Kiang Wu Hospital were accused of negligence in failing to identify the cause of an infant’s severe abdominal pain, which thus delayed treatment – had taken 13 years to reach last week’s conviction by the Court of Second Instance for a “crime of offense to physical integrity for negligence” as well as a compensation order of over MOP260,000 to the family.
The then two-year child was diagnosed with an intestinal infection and a gastrointestinal disorder successively in the private hospital’s emergency and pediatrics clinics. The patient’s condition failed to improve after a week of treatment, and the child was transferred by the family to a Hong Kong hospital. The toddler eventually recovered after receiving two emergency surgeries after a diagnosis of “intussusception”, a cause previously ruled out in the defendants’ screening.
Regarding the court’s ruling, four medical societies including the Kiang Wu Hospital Charitable Association, the Macao Association of Medical Practitioners, and the Macau Alumni Association of Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, have issued statements published in the local Chinese press to express their disagreement and concerns.
In a “Solemn Statement,” the associations argued that “the development of a disease is a progress, especially for atypical lesions that are even more difficult to diagnose early.” Moreover, they stressed that “no violations of medical rules were found in the diagnosis and treatment where the medical staffers followed routine medical operations conscientiously and responsibly.”
The medical societies called the conviction “unacceptable” and “confusing” for the future of doctors’ practices. Furthermore, they warned that it set a precedent that would force  physicians to favor protective behaviors, causing them to order excessive exams and over-treat their patients.
The Kiang Wu Hospital Charitable Association also published a statement yesterday, urging the judges to justify the verdict’s credibility and acceptance by consulting expert opinions. In addition, it criticized the court’s “incomplete release of the conviction on its website”, which did not indicate the invalidity of the criminal conviction, and thus served as “salt in the wound” of the two doctors after they had been tortured by the decade-long lawsuit.

Invalid conviction

The Office of the President of the Court of Final Appeal released a statement yesterday indicating that the criminal conviction of the two doctors is invalid, as the limitation period for criminal prosecution has expired.