50 Lawyers to Be Selected to Strengthen Medical Accident Safety Net
Legal and Medical Support for Dispute Mediation from the Patient's Perspective
A 'Patient Advocate' service that assists in dispute mediation from the patient's side when medical accidents occur will begin next month.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 14th that it will recruit experts to serve as Patient Advocates by the 30th, ahead of the implementation of a project to legally and medically assist in medical dispute mediation.
The Patient Advocate project for medical dispute mediation aims to activate dispute resolution through mediation when medical accidents occur and to ensure the substantive participation of the parties involved in the mediation process. It was presented as a task for establishing a medical accident safety net in the 'Second Medical Reform Implementation Plan' announced last month.
The resolution method relying on lawsuits when medical accidents occur places a heavy burden on both patients and medical professionals, intensifying the avoidance of essential medical care. Accordingly, the government has operated a medical dispute mediation system since 2012 to resolve medical accidents through reconciliation or settlement rather than litigation, but patients, who lack expertise and information compared to medical professionals, have faced difficulties in the mediation process.
The newly established Patient Advocate will provide professional assistance throughout the appraisal and pre-mediation stages when victims who have suffered serious medical accidents such as death or unconsciousness for more than one month wish to mediate disputes. They will support legal consultation and advice, submission of materials, and review of issues to help both medical professionals and patients reach a satisfactory mediation.
The government plans to select about 50 lawyers with expertise and experience in the field of medical accidents and require them to complete a certain amount of training. During their activities, they will be paid per case, with 300 million KRW of national funds allocated for this purpose this year.
Lawyers wishing to participate can submit applications and supporting documents to the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency by the 30th.
After appointing and training the Patient Advocates, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will officially provide the service starting in May. In the early stages of the project, an advisory group for monitoring the operation of Patient Advocates will be formed to regularly check support status and satisfaction.
Kim Guk-il, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "Starting with Patient Advocates, we will innovate the entire medical dispute mediation system to activate mediation and minimize exhausting lawsuits," adding, "We will also steadily promote strengthening national compensation for unavoidable accidents, establishing a public compensation system, and preparing a specialized criminal system for medical accidents to build a medical accident safety net."
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