Salus aegroti suprema lex. The wellbeing of the patient is the supreme law.
Doctors are responsible for the process of examination, diagnostics, and treatment of their patients and do not have right to make an error. Medical error is understood as discrepancy of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions (or absence of them when they are needed) performed by the doctor with the regulatory or generally accepted care standards in medical science and practice if such discrepancy leads to deterioration in the patient?s health or to death. One of the key criteria of health care quality is accordance with the patient safety standards. Big Medical Encyclopedia defines medical error as follows: ?This is a doctor?s error in the performance of his/her professional duties, a consequence of an honest mistake, and it does not contain components of a crime or malpractice''. The degree of responsibility of a healthcare professional for a medical error is established with regard to circumstances of a particular error.
Most medical errors are caused by the so-called human factor: insufficient qualification of the doctor, malpractice, insufficient internal motivation for being responsible for the health and life of the patient. Medical errors are most commonly caused by human factor, based on the analysis of forensic medical reports. However, unintentional mistakes, not related to the abovementioned factor, caused by a coincidence of circumstances or by an accident, are not rare also. Doctors are not brought to justice for such errors. In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety.
All subjects and practical skills acquired by students at medical school allow future doctors to professionally perform their duties and prevent gross medical errors harmful to the patient. All medical school education is focused on this.