New Registrar-General would review patient complaints before they reach police or prosecutors

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

A proposal to create a Registrar-General for physicians and other health professionals would place a new gatekeeper between patient complaints and the police or Public Prosecution, under a draft amendment to Decree-Law No 7 of 1989 on the practice of human medicine and dentistry.

The draft, submitted by MP Abdulla Al Rumaihi, would add five new articles to the existing law so that most complaints against doctors and health practitioners pass first through a single post – the Registrar-General rather than going straight to law-enforcement bodies.

The text has been put forward for referral to the competent committee for study before it is taken up by Parliament.

Recommendation

Under the proposal, a “Registrar-General for Physicians and Health Professions” would be appointed by Royal Decree on the recommendation of the competent minister.

The Registrar-General would receive complaints lodged against doctors and other health practitioners, arrange for them to be examined by specialised medical committees and decide, in light of those findings, what disciplinary action to take.

The Registrar-General would be able to issue a range of penalties: a caution, a warning, suspension from practice for up to one year or removal of a doctor’s or practitioner’s name from the professional register. If the facts of a case suggest a criminal offence, the Registrar-General would refer the file to the Public Prosecution.

Another article would limit direct recourse to police stations and the Public Prosecution in cases linked to medical practice.

Criminal conduct

Except in matters that amount from the outset to purely criminal conduct, no complaint against a doctor or a person treated in the same way under the law would be handled by police or prosecutors unless it had first been submitted to the Registrar-General.

The draft law also provides for a disciplinary committee chaired by the Registrar-General, with a representative of the Health Ministry and a representative of the doctors’ union or the health professions as members.

This committee would examine professional breaches and issue disciplinary decisions.

Regulation The implementing regulation would lay down how complaints are submitted and investigated, and how disciplinary decisions can be challenged.