One of the main objectives of the Civil Liability Bill is to fix accountability on professionals in the country. But the bill specifically mentions the duty of health professionals separately rather than including them under the general umbrella of professionals. This, the National Council members said is not necessary.
The members cited examples of doctors leaving cotton in a patient’s body after an operation to judges giving wrong verdicts in the court. They said apart from the code of conduct, there isn’t a law or an act to guide a person or a victim to file a case against the professionals.
The civil liability bill intends to fix accountability on professionals for such malpractices. However, the bill specifically mentions the duty of health professionals separately.
“On an operating table, there is a chance for negligence. But if we look at international practices, there have been instances where legal malpractice has also been reported due to negligence. A person who is liable for 10 years in prison is given 100 years and the one who is liable for 100 years is given 10 years because of a wrong verdict. So, keeping this in mind, it is important to include legal professionals separately as well,” said Gasa MP, Dorji Khandu.
“I want the committee to clarify why health professionals have been referred separately under professionals. Just like Gasa MP said, people are sometimes reluctant to report about the judiciary system. Everyone should be included in the professional umbrella term rather than mentioning it separately. If there is a separate clause for a health professional, there should be a separate clause for judiciary professionals too,” said Dagana MP, Surja Man Thapa.
“There are different kinds of professionals. If health professionals are specifically identified here, then other professionals also need to be included. There are engineers, lawyers, and health professionals. I think it can be kept as general instead of specifying health professionals which should be omitted,” said Zhemgang MP, Pema Dakpa.
To this, the Legislative Committee’s Deputy Chairperson said that any professional who uses their skills, intelligence and special knowledge excluding manual work is included for liability. This includes lawyers, engineers, chartered accountants and architects among others.
“The main intention to separately put health professional is because in other countries too there is a problem of whether to use health professionals or medical professionals. If we use medical professionals, local healers in the villages, nurses, and physiotherapists are not included. And if any negligence happens, these people will be excluded. So, keeping this in mind, many countries have recently changed the term medical professional into a health professional,” said Legislative Committee’s Deputy Chairperson, Ugyen Tshering.
The House directed the Legislative Committee to further review the clause. Meanwhile, the deliberation on the bill will continue tomorrow.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Sonam Pem
