Materia Medica Malaysiana

Lawyer: Doctors must talk to patients

KUALA LUMPUR: Doctors should be taught to communicate with their patients to minimise allegations of “wrong treatment” and negligence suits against hospitals and their staff, said a committee member of the Asean Law Association of Malaysia.

Association honorary secretary S. Radhakrishnan said: “Communication between doctors and patients is as important as a doctor’s ability to diagnose.”

“Medical schools should emphasise this, apart from medical excellence,” he said at a press conference after Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall launched a seminar on Legal Issues in Medical Law: Strategy for the Future yesterday.

Radhakrishnan, who has been defending doctors in negligence suits for 25 years, said non-communication and unsatisfactory explanations were among the factors that contributed to negligence suits.

He said many patients told him that they were not informed about what had gone wrong in a medical procedure.

“Doctors have the highest string of post-graduate qualifications but they don’t talk. So, patients rather sue the doctor to find out.”

Radhakrishnan also noted that many doctors were reluctant to talk because they did not have the time and they believed that “they knew what was best for their patients.”

He said doctors should provide sufficient information to help patients make informed decisions.

He pointed out that although there were no proper statistics on negligence suits against those in the private practice, records from the Health Ministry showed that between 18 and 20 negligence suits were filed against government hospitals in 1999.

On a proposal by Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek for doctors in private hospitals to serve several hours in government hospitals to ease the shortage of personnel, Radhakrishnan said studies should be done to find out why there was an exodus in the first place.

“There should be concrete steps taken to resolve problems faced by doctors, specialists and other medical personnel and to find out why they leave the public sector after 15 years of service instead of introducing ad hoc suggestions,” he said.

Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) honorary secretary Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas said the association was ready for talks to see what could be worked out.