SHARJAH, 12 October 2004 — As of next week, all doctors, nurses and technicians working for state-run institutions in the UAE will have insurance to handle claims arising from malpractice lawsuits. It is the first time that a member country of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has introduced insurance to cover medical malpractices.
The Ministry of Health has signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC) to this effect. The scheme comes into effect on Saturday.
The scheme addresses a major gap in the UAE’s health care system. Several cases of alleged medical malpractices were tried in the country’s law courts in recent years, with verdicts mostly favoring the complainant, and the doctor or nurse or technician being sued having to settle the case.
The insurance scheme is expected to cover more than 10,000 doctors, who will be insured against any court-awarded compensation arising from their mistakes.
Under the scheme, the insurance company will pay up to five million dirhams a year to settle court-ordered medical compensation and will maintain a ceiling of one million dirhams per case. ADNIC will bear a maximum limit of 5 million dirhams per year as compensation for the errors, for which final judgments are issued by the UAE courts of law, provided the compensation per case will not exceed 1 million dirhams.
Health Ministry officials said the scheme, which will cost the government about 1.2 million dirhams in premium, was aimed at improving health care services and the performance of doctors, nurses and technicians. The agreement will offer a secure environment for the medical fraternity and will give all medical professionals more confidence to handle complicated and difficult cases,” said Hassan Al-Alkim, undersecretary of the Ministry of Health. More confidence will reflect on their overall performance and will ultimately benefit the patient, he added.
Doctors welcomed the move. Some of them said they had been turning down cases where they suspected they could fail and thus possibly expose themselves to lawsuits which they had to handle on their own.
