Author of the article: Anastasia Ivanova Last modified: February 2021 1042

Law No. 323-FZ of November 21, 2011 establishes the protection of the health of citizens in Russia as a priority state task. If you feel unwell or are diagnosed with an illness, you must contact a clinic or hospital with an insurance policy. But not all medical workers fulfill their duties conscientiously. It happens that medical negligence leads not only to deterioration of health, but also to the death of the patient. To protect your interests, you can contact higher authorities. A complaint will help not only to defend your rights, but also to change the behavior of a medical worker.

What does negligence mean?

Negligence means an employee’s dishonest attitude towards his or her duties. This applies to any employee, including those in medical organizations. The result of doctor’s negligence can be harm to the patient’s health, even death. There are various reasons for dishonest performance of duties, including the incompetence of a specialist.

Patients may experience the following manifestations of medical negligence:

• incorrect diagnosis;
• superficial inspection;
• incorrectly prescribed treatment;
• violation of medical confidentiality;
• non-compliance with medical ethics, etc.

If the patient encounters any of these situations, then he has the right to hold the doctor liable for negligence. Various measures of punishment for medical workers are provided. Among them are the following:

• disciplinary liability;
• recovery of compensation for moral or material damage;
• criminal liability.

The punishment depends on the employee's misconduct.

Criminal liability

Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the following types of punishment:

• forced labor or imprisonment for up to 5 years if the mistake led to death or serious bodily harm;
• imprisonment for up to 7 years, if the result of a careless action was the death of 2 or more people;
• a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles, when negligence led to significant violations of the rights or interests of citizens.

Expert commentary

Shadrin Alexey

Lawyer

In this case, the doctor may lose the right to hold a position for up to 5 years. If the rights or interests of patients that are protected by legislative acts are violated, the punishment may be arrest, compulsory or correctional labor. Their duration depends on the severity of the harm caused. In addition, the patient has the right to file a lawsuit to recover compensation for material or moral damage from the doctor.

Criminal liability is also provided for failure to provide medical assistance to a citizen who needs it. In accordance with Art. 124 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if a patient is refused to be admitted without a valid reason, the doctor may face liability:

• If the actions of a medical worker resulted in harm to health of moderate severity, then the fine reaches up to 40 thousand rubles. The court may impose correctional labor for up to 12 months, compulsory labor for up to 360 hours. In some cases, a person is arrested for up to 4 months.
• In cases where the actions led to serious harm to the health or death of the patient, the punishment is more severe. The doctor may face forced labor or imprisonment for up to 4 years. In this case, the court will prohibit the person from holding relevant positions or working in medicine for a period of up to 3 years.

Important! Unlawful actions of a doctor can be regarded as unintentional harm to health (Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in case of improper performance of their duties. In this case, the medical worker faces imprisonment or forced labor for up to 1 year. The court may prohibit holding certain positions for up to 3 years.

Thus, the actions or inaction of the doctor in a certain situation are taken into account. Taking this into account, the penalty is established.

Where to complain

When a citizen is faced with the negligence of a health care worker, where to turn depends on the specific case. Complaints against doctors are accepted to the following authorities:

• management of the medical institution;
• Ministry of Health care;
• Police;
• Prosecutor's Office;
• Court.

The cause, consequences and severity of the consequences of the doctor’s negligence influence which organization you need to contact.

Chief Physician or Ministry of Health

Citizens who have encountered medical negligence are advised to first contact the head physician of the clinic or hospital with a written statement. The complaint will need to indicate the circumstances of the case and the requirements for punishment of the medical worker. The head physician is given 30 days to consider the application (Law No. 59-FZ of May 2, 2006). Based on the results, the administration must give a written response to the applicant.

If the head of the medical institution ignored the complaint, the patient or his relatives can contact the Ministry of Health. this can be done in the following ways:

• at a personal reception;
• by registered mail;
• through the Internet reception on the official website of the department.

In the latter case, it is necessary to attach documents proving the doctor’s negligence in electronic form. The size of applications should not exceed 5 MB.

Complaint against a doctor to the chief physician (sample) Complaint about medical negligence to the Ministry of Health (sample)

Rospotrebnadzor

Government officials are charged with protecting consumer rights. If a medical organization provided services of inadequate quality, the patient has the right to contact Rospotrebnadzor. This point is regulated by Law No. 2300-1 of 02/07/1992. Claims in court for the protection of consumer rights are not subject to state duty. According to the law, the patient can not only return money for poor-quality services, but also receive compensation for moral damage. The organization may be subject to a fine of 50% of the value of the claim.

Police

A statement to the police is written in situations where the dishonest performance of work duties by a medical worker has resulted in serious harm to the health or death of the patient. You should contact the territorial department of the department at the location of the hospital.

Expert commentary

Kireev Maxim

Lawyer

Based on the application, the investigative authorities are required to conduct an inspection within 10 days. After this, a decision is made to initiate criminal proceedings or refuse to do so.

Prosecutor's office

The prosecutor's office is the supervisory authority over compliance with legislation in various fields of activity. A complaint about a doctor’s negligence is submitted in writing in person to the office, by registered mail or on the website of a government agency. The document must describe in detail the circumstances of the case and the actions/inactions of health workers that resulted in moral or material harm to the patient. Based on the application, the prosecutor's office must conduct an inspection, the results of which the citizen must be notified.

Application to the prosecutor's office about medical negligence (sample)

Court

It makes sense to go to court if the patient or his relatives are going to demand compensation for moral or material damage. This authority will also help if applications to other authorities have not yielded any results.

The court will not consider the claim if no attempt has been made to resolve the conflict out of court. The application must be accompanied by complaints sent to the Ministry of Health or the prosecutor's office, as well as the response to them. Decisions of other authorities can be challenged in court if a citizen is not satisfied with the results of the inspection.

Your actions

Before filing an application in court, you need to be patient and also try to resolve the issue directly with the medical institution. The entire path from identifying a problem to filing a claim may look like this:

1. Search for evidence . Any claim, complaint or lawsuit must be accompanied by evidence of medical error, negligence or fault of the medical institution. Therefore, it will be necessary to copy outpatient cards, medical history, doctors’ statements and reports, MSEC certificates, witness statements, testimony of independent experts, etc. Some of them cannot be obtained without a legal request, while others must be provided to you upon request. Already at this stage, it would be a good idea to enlist the support of a lawyer - he will be able not only to officially obtain the necessary documents, but also to send your case for an independent examination to other doctors, for example, from another region, who will confirm or refute your doctor’s prescriptions;
2. If you or your loved ones were treated using insurance, contact the organization that issued you the policy . Your request may initiate a pre-trial investigation of the doctor who treated you and help determine whether his care was of high quality and professional;
3. With copies of the collected documents, you will need to file a complaint with the health authorities and the head of the medical institution . Similar requests can be submitted simultaneously, but the complaint must indicate that you have sent it to a higher/lower authority. At this stage, you can demand to convene a commission of doctors who will have to find violations in the doctor’s actions. It should be remembered that doctors, as a rule, protect “their own”, so, most likely, you will receive a veiled message that no actions harmful to you were found in the doctor’s work;
4. File a claim and send a warning to the medical institution to take the case to court;
5. File a claim in person with the courts or send it by registered mail.

If you want to bypass the stage of pre-trial proceedings, it is necessary to reconsider such a decision, since the court will more willingly begin to understand a situation where the plaintiff has already completed all legal pre-trial procedures and received refusals or “printed deception” in the conclusion of the commission of doctors. You may even be sent from court to lower authorities to resolve the dispute peacefully, so always try to first negotiate with doctors, write complaints to the Ministry of Health or any higher authority. And only then contact lawyers. This way, you will provide yourself with a chance to resolve the problem without going to court, as well as a faster trial if the commission or appeal body was not too loyal to you.

You must file a claim within two years from the date the problem occurred with the doctor, the date you discovered the harmful effects of the treatment, etc. The trial itself can last from one month to six months - this will depend on the conduct of forensic medical examinations, the literacy of the requirements, the work of the lawyer and the “savvy” of the defense.

Arbitrage practice

Judicial practice shows that the judge takes the side of the plaintiff if sufficient evidence is provided that the medical worker committed negligence, as a result of which the patient suffered. The amount of moral or material compensation is calculated based on the actual damage caused.

Thus, in 2008, the court of the Kalininsky district of Novosibirsk ordered medical workers to pay 2 million rubles to a patient who suffered from medical negligence. Due to errors in the prescription, a 35-year-old girl had her leg amputated. As a result, she not only spent large sums on treatment, but was also able to work and, together with her minor daughter, remained below the poverty line. The court took into account all the circumstances of the case and then decided to pay compensation in full. In 2021, a 10-year-old child was admitted to the Ingush Republican Hospital with a diagnosis of ARVI and stomatitis, cerebral palsy. In the emergency department, the girl was seen by an infectious disease doctor who prescribed an incomplete examination and symptomatic treatment. A day later, the child’s condition worsened, she fell into a coma and died. She was posthumously diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.

The girl's parents filed a lawsuit alleging negligence of a medical result that caused harm to health, resulting in death. The court took into account all the circumstances of the case, including the fact that the doctor did not prescribe a biochemical blood test, which would have made it possible to make a correct diagnosis in a timely manner and prescribe timely treatment. The inaction of an infectious disease doctor was considered in accordance with Part 1 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

"She was driven to death"

A few months ago Tamara Gulia fell ill. Relatives suspected blood cancer, but for an accurate diagnosis it was necessary to undergo tests. There is a long line at public clinics, so we decided to go to a private one. The choice fell on Medicine 24/7, which is located not far from Gulia’s house.

“We paid a lot of money - 2 million 200 thousand rubles! Tamara Grigorievna was placed in a clinic, but they refused to let us see her. But over time, she only got worse,” sighs her daughter-in-law Natalya.

Soon the inventor’s wife found herself in intensive care in a medically induced coma. Then, according to our interlocutor, the doctors demanded to pay 400 thousand rubles daily. The family no longer had that kind of money.

“We literally fought our way into the clinic to see Tamara Grigorievna. The clinic called the Russian National Guard, and two squads with machine guns arrived. But, seeing what was happening, they took our side,” says Natalya Gulia.

On May 10, the woman died.

“She came there on her own two feet. But within two months she was actually driven to death!” — LR’s interlocutor is indignant

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The clinic did not contact the relatives of the deceased, says Natalya Gulia. Now they have only one hope - that the perpetrators of the tragedy will be punished for what happened, and the clinic itself will be closed.

Now the Investigative Committee is checking the circumstances of Tamara Gulia’s death. A criminal case has so far been opened into the incident; a preliminary investigation will determine those responsible for the tragedy.

Crimes related to medical errors are perhaps the most latent in our country, says lawyer Ismail Salpagarov, in the recent past an investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee.

— It is very difficult to identify that negative consequences occurred precisely because of doctors’ mistakes; only a small part of the crimes actually committed by doctors reach the initiation of criminal cases. While working as an investigator, I had cases against doctors under Article 293 (negligence), 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, I investigated a case where a newborn died due to medical negligence during childbirth. When investigating iatrogenic crimes, forensic examinations will play a large role in the evidence base, says Salpagarov.

According to the lawyer, if the doctors’ guilt can be proven, they will face a sentence of up to 8 years in prison.