Draft law on medical risks to be forwarded to Justice Ministry soon

The Ministry of Health has set a time limit of September to forward the draft law on medical risks to the Ministry of Justice.When approved, it will give a legal procedure to protect health practitioners as well as enforcing patients` rights. “By end of September, we should have finished consulting all stakeholders about the draft law on medical risks and forward it to the Ministry of Justice,” Spencer Bugingo, Legal advisor in the Health Ministry said. He explained that all stakeholders who include the Rwanda Medical council (RMC), Insurance companies, doctors, nurses and the public will meet to make final a declaration before forwarding the draft law to the Ministry of Justice. According to Bugingo, health workers will be insured and patients will be able to legally claim any practice against their rights.“Presently, we have patients` rights in the hospitals, but they lack legal force,” Bugingo noted. He explained that patients have no legal procedures to base on for claims against improper handling or treatment by health workers. He said that provisions of the patients’ charter will be incorporated in the law, to give a clear and dependable legal system. Patients have to be made aware and agree on the kind of treatment that is to be given to them, in order to avoid claims based on ignorance of any outcome of the treatment. The initiative comes as a result of challenges by the Rwanda Medical Council (RMC) in settling disputes between medical practitioners with patients based on negative effects from various treatment and operations without written legal procedures. Ends