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With the evolution of Taiwan's medical system, the doctor-patient relationship has entered another new era. Different from the private contract in the past, after the implementation of the health insurance system, many other public welfare elements have been added. However, in the case of the general shortage of medical staff, the medical manpower has already faced the edge of collapse. How to balance the value of medical insurance and social welfare has become a major issue for medical staff recently. The balance may be avoiding medical disputes and avoiding the more deteriorating doctor-patient relationship. The medical practice in the health insurance system has become the mainstream topic of medical care today. Therefore, author uses detail discussion of the relationship between medical disputes and tort liability to find a balance point which is beneficial to both sides and to change the current medical dilemma in Taiwan.
Under the health insurance system in Taiwan, the stress on medical staff is increasing day by day. Tension between medical staff and patient is increasing due to medical disputes is raising in recent days. Even worse, biased report and exaggerated media lead medical staff feeling frustrated with the situation of current medical system. Due to above reason, medical liability insurance which was rarely heard in the past begun to sprout in the medical community. About medical disputes, in addition to the contractual nature of debts, civil litigation still deals with tort liability. This article hopes to explore the relationship between medical disputes and tort liability in order to clarify that how to apply the elements of infringement of personality right in medical disputes.
Taiwan has experienced many democratization processes in recent years. Especially after the Sunflower Student Movement, rising of the new generation has further promoted the people's democratic consciousness and has formed a people-oriented social trend. The development of human dignity and freedom of personality right has also been upgraded to one of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution. In medical disputes, the compensation for damages includes two major parts: the compensation for property damage and the compensation for non-property damage. Pursuant to the front section of Civil Code, Article 195, Paragraph 1 "if a person has wrongfully damaged to the body, health, reputation, liberty, credit, privacy or chastity of another, or to another's personality in a severe way, the injured person may claim a reasonable compensation in money even if such injury is not a purely pecuniary loss", the provisions clearly stipulate that the claims of infringement of personality right such as body or health including the compensation for non-property damages. This article will start from the medical disputes, the part of infringement of personality rights, and gradually lead out the analysis of the elements of the subjective and objective components.
In accordance with the front section of the Civil Code, Article 184, Paragraph 1 "a person who, intentionally or negligently, has wrongfully damaged the rights of another is bound to compensate him for any injury arising therefrom", and the Old Medical Care Act, Article 82, Paragraph 2 "medical care institutions and their medical personnel who harm patients in the execution of practice, whether deliberate or by accident, shall be responsible for compensation", it is known that in medical disputes, the Medical Care Act and the torts in Civil Code are no different in the elements of subjective and objective components during the old medical law period.
However, after the amendment of the Current Medical Care Act, the elements of Article 82 of the Medical Care Act have been substantially revised. Except for Paragraph 1, Article 82 of Medical Care Act, Paragraph 2 "only in the event that medical personnel cause harm to patients in conducting medical practices intentionally or breach of medical due care, which goes beyond reasonable exercise of professional clinical discretion, the medical personnel shall be bound to compensate for such harm" and Article 82 of Medical Care Act, Paragraph 4 "the extent of the breach of the duty of due care and professional clinical discretion, as set forth in the preceding two paragraphs, shall be determined based on objective conditions such as the customary medical practice, medical level, medical facilities, working conditions, and level of emergency or urgency in the locality at the time of practice in the medical field concerned" reveal that the elements of subjective and objective components of infringement of personality right have changed greatly. This article combines law and medical field in order to analyze the elements and show the latest insights of the Current Medical Care Act after the law is amended.
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