Doctors’ syndicate claims medical liability bill serves insurance companies

AMMAN — The draft medical accountability law will “badly affect medical services, since it will prevent doctors from taking complex and tough conditions due to fear of complications and legal liability”, the Jordan Medical Association (JMA) has charged.

At a consultative meeting held Tuesday to discuss the bill, which is currently in the hands of Parliament, JMA President Ali Abous said the necessary medical and social environment is required to ensure that any new law would be applied properly.

Meeting attendees said the bill is skewed in favour of insurance companies.

JMA council member Nidal Badran said the draft law would “force all doctors to insure against medical errors, while the JMA suggestion to create an association fund to cover medical malpractice was rejected”.

Former deputy and former JMA president Mamdouh Abbadi charged that the bill “isolates doctors from their institutions when it comes to medical liability”.

But Jordan Insurance Federation Chairman Ali Wazani dismissed as baseless claims that the insurance sector had pressured the government to draft the bill in its favour.

“The federation has bigger issues to deal with. If we could pressure the government, we would first solve other problems costing us millions of dinars each year,” he told The Jordan Times.

“Medical liability laws are implemented all around the world, and Jordan should adopt a more civilised law to ensure patients’ rights,” Wazani said.

“This law enforces punitive damages to make sure an error doesn’t occur again,” he argued.