The increasing number of medical errors has become a source of great worry to some families, especially when their members are in need of surgery. A report released last year by the Ministry of Health showed that 129 people died in 2010 because of medical errors. Medical commissions in the Kingdom's regions are looking into 1,356 cases of medical errors, the report said. According to 2008 statistics, 929,000 surgical operations were conducted in that year. Of them, 49 percent were conducted in Ministry of Health hospitals, 39 percent in private hospitals and the remaining 11 percent in military hospitals. With the release of the report on medical errors, a number of people are questioning about the action the ministry takes against errant doctors and the regulations that define medical errors. Ahmad Al-Ottaibi said allowing errant doctors to travel back home before the case settles results in their not being punished for their negligence, and this affects the patients' relatives psychologically. Faris Al-Qathami called for reviewing the law defining medical mistakes because he thinks it does not deter doctors. Sultan Bin Zahem, a lawyer, said in civil cases in which doctors admit their mistakes, the prosecutor general is authorized to seek the judge's consent to prevent the departure of the defendant. The matters come under the jurisdiction of the medical committees, which can issue a warrant to ban a doctor from leaving the country, he said. He said a Shariah judge presides over the Shariah medical commissions and committees and pointed out that a disadvantage of the insurance against medical mistakes, which is mandatory for all doctors, is that legal proceedings take a long time until the case is settled. This causes a lot of inconvenience to the accused doctors because they can't leave the country till their cases are settled and some of them have scientific or professional obligations in other countries, he said. Zahem has voiced his discontent with penalties for errant doctors and cited the example of the late Dr. Al-Jehani, who died on the operating table because he was given too much anesthesia. The verdict against the doctor who made the mistake was too light, he said. He also stressed the importance of learning from experiments in advanced countries and said the Ministry of Health has instructed all directorates of health to allow the accused doctors to travel only after the passage of the period defined by the executive ordinance governing the practice of the medical professions. __
