Summary

In the 35th Estonian Lawyers’ Days, which were held in October 2018, a representative of patients, a healthcare figure and a lawyer shared the stage in one session. During the session, the presenters noticed that, regardless of their profession, they all shared the same viewpoint regarding the liability of healthcare professionals. It was found that the regulation of liability of healthcare professionals requires amendment because the current one hinders the establishment of a patient insurance system and learning from mistakes. Thus, a proposal was made to reduce the liability of healthcare professionals. The article also explains this proposal to readers of Juridica.

Firstly, the article observes issues regarding liability. Both civil and criminal law constraints are prescribed upon the arising of issues during the provision of a health care service. With civil liability, one must distinguish between the liability of the health care professional themselves and the liability of the health care institution that employs the health care professional. One must also distinguish between tortious and contractual liability. With criminal liability, one must examine liability for both misdemeanours as well as crimes. Since the authors claim that liability hinders improvement in quality, they ask who should even be liable in contemporary medicine – the health care professional who is a natural person, or the health care provider who is a legal person? Figures from health care statistics are presented to observe whether people learn from mistakes in Estonia. Since improvement of treatment quality and changing the system is in the interests of the patient, a patient’s view is presented and it is examined, what the patient expects from the healthcare system. In order not to reinvent the wheel, an overview of the similar system in Finland is presented and its effects are also compared.