Precedent set in ruling on malpractice Japan

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 14 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Supreme Court (Japan) on Tuesday dismissed the appeal of the former director of a Tokyo hospital who was given a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, for failing to report a case of medical malpractice that resulted in the death of a woman in 1999.

The decision finalized the high court ruling on Kiyoshi Okai, 68, which included a fine of 20,000 yen.

The court rejected Okai's claim that the Medical Practioners Law violates the Constitution, which stipulates that defendants shall not be compelled to testify against themselves.

The law contains a stipulation obliging doctors to report unnatural deaths to the police even if it is a result of malpractice by themselves or colleagues.

The court dismissed Okai's defense, saying: "The Medical Practioners Law only requires doctors to report that the cause of a death is suspicious. It does not require them to report their relationship with the medical treatment given."

Tuesday's ruling was the first time the Supreme Court had ruled on the issue.

Okai had been charged with failing to report a case of malpractice, in violation of the Medical Practitioners Law, and with falsifying medical records to cover up the malpractice when he was head of Tokyo Metropolitan Hiroo General Hospital in Shibuya Ward.

From:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040414wo36.htm

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