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Law on medical ethics expected by year-end

After inaugurating the first Conference on Medicine and Law that started at the Marriott Hotel yesterday, the health minister said there is need for such a law because the responsibility of a doctor has always been a sensitive issue.

Speaking on the same issue, Dr Juma Bilal Fairouz, Director of Disease Control Department, Ministry of Health, said: “The UAE needs a law urgently. Both doctors and patients in the UAE need protection so that the profession can achieve high standards. In some cases, doctors too can get victimised by a patient. Therefore, all cases of medical negligence should fall under the framework of this law,” he added.

The organiser of the two-day conference, Mohammed Taqatqa said: “In view of the amazing scientific developments witnessed recently, it has always been noted that there are a variety of problems in different fields which leave passive influences on the lives of individuals and communities, particularly in the field of medicine and surgery.”

“A doctor’s career should be governed by a set of legal and professional factors. In other words, it has been legally established that a doctor should be fully committed to satisfying certain moral obligations, besides those relating to his profession as a doctor,” he said.

Taqatqa also said that in view of the critical issue and the big responsibility assumed by a doctor, the Emirates International Law Centre arranged for the conference, which includes highly qualified experts from such environments covering medicine, law and the judiciary.

Topics for discussions include: the civil and criminal responsibility of doctors, the responsibility for defective medical products and tools, medical reports and certificates, medical liability insurance, forensic medicine fields and aspects, the civil and criminal liability of nurses and evening workshops (to practise mock matters), the basics and principles that control the doctor’s behaviour, ethics and his professional commitments.

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