New Zealand widens access to "no fault" compensation for medical mishaps
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《英国医生杂志》
The New Zealand government has relaxed previously strict criteria for access to its "no fault" accident compensation scheme for claims arising from medical misadventure.
Patients who sustained injury from medical mishaps could previously access the Accident Compensation Corporation抯 scheme only if they met certain criteria. To access the scheme the adverse consequence either had to be rare—"occurring in one per cent or less of cases where that treatment is given"—or required a finding of fault on the part of a practitioner or organisation. Thus a victim of a car crash could get compensation from the scheme without first having to prove fault, but the same did not necessarily apply to patients who sustained an injury as a result of medical treatment.
A spokesman for the government said removal of the two thresholds would "end the inconsistencies between how an injury was incurred and make it a true 憂o fault?scheme."
The chairman of the New Zealand Medical Association, Dr Trician Briscoe, welcomed the decision. "Claimants will be able to get their entitlements and, if necessary, begin treatment much quicker under the new system," she said.(Canberra Bob Burton)
Patients who sustained injury from medical mishaps could previously access the Accident Compensation Corporation抯 scheme only if they met certain criteria. To access the scheme the adverse consequence either had to be rare—"occurring in one per cent or less of cases where that treatment is given"—or required a finding of fault on the part of a practitioner or organisation. Thus a victim of a car crash could get compensation from the scheme without first having to prove fault, but the same did not necessarily apply to patients who sustained an injury as a result of medical treatment.
A spokesman for the government said removal of the two thresholds would "end the inconsistencies between how an injury was incurred and make it a true 憂o fault?scheme."
The chairman of the New Zealand Medical Association, Dr Trician Briscoe, welcomed the decision. "Claimants will be able to get their entitlements and, if necessary, begin treatment much quicker under the new system," she said.(Canberra Bob Burton)