INDIAN DOCTORS ARRESTED AFTER HEPATITIS OUTBREAK

In one of my February 25th postings, “Error-Prone Doctors, Count Your Blessings,” I brought up the relationship between medical malpractice and criminal prosecution that exists in The Netherlands, where a bill before parliament may result in prison sentences for up to 9 years for physicians who commit “serious” malpractice.

Perhaps you thought, “Interesting, but we’ll never hear about medical malpractice being treated as a crime in any other country.  That Netherlands story was a once-in-a-blue-moon fluke.”

And you would have been wrong, because in India, doctors who were allegedly responsible for an outbreak of hepatitis that resulted in numerous deaths have been arrested .  They are looking at anywhere from 2 years to life in prison , if convicted.

So Docs, quit your belly-aching about those increased med mal liability insurance premiums.  You really don’t know how good you’ve got it.