Alliance for Patient Safety

Dan Bental:

Yes, I wanted to say that in 2012 we did have a report on medical negligence, a very inclusive and wide scope report. We have, in fact, have not left one stone unturned in the area of medical negligence. We have touched the topic of medical negligence law suits, in the area of insurance, the area of risk management, in the area of writing a disciplinary law in the health system. A wide scope report. Very grave. One of the gravest reports that I was part of writing together with Dana, the State Comptroller employee who has made the report. To our greatest regret, and from all the impressions we have collected this far, and from what we have heard, this report was left untouched, at the Ministry of Health.

The chairperson, Karin Elharar:

We will check it presently.

Dan Bental:

Following this report, and following the case of Mr. Horowitz, we have prepared an even wider follow up report. We have taken the Patient’s Rights Act, this was a year ago. The Patient’s Rights Act is one of the most advanced laws existing in the State of Israel. We have checked each one of the clauses in the Patient’s Rights Act and compared between these and everything that is happening on the ground. One of the clauses engaged in the topic of the legal disciplinary law, and the examination committees. Again, you can see that there is no connection between the advanced law and the manner in which it is performed on the ground. The State of Israel does not keep this law, unequivocally.

One of the most painful chapters is the chapter on the activity of the Public Complaints Commissioner for the Medical Professions at the Ministry of Health, the procedures of significant complaint, the candidacy of the commissioner. A very complex chapter. We came and asked strange questions – why a committee is there, the committee ends an examination after three years, and all of a sudden, in such an internal procedure in the Ministry of Health, they reverse all the conclusions. We were told there are macro considerations which the committee does not understand. We said, OK, please write a procedure which regulates that, so it does not happen that one time you operate in one way, and another time you operate in a different way.

To this date, I have not heard about this procedure, and we have been following up. we sat and discussed it with Prof. Gamzo two years ago, and he said, there you go, there is some procedure in preparation. Perhaps we find out from the prosecutor or Boaz will tell us where is that procedure really at. But this is a mere one point out of this entire grave report.