POINT OF VIEW/ Katsumi Inagaki: New body needed to investigate medical mishaps

Unlike many other nations, Japan lacks a body with the specific responsibility of determining the cause of serious medical accidents.

Currently, when patients or their families have doubts about the officially stated causes of mishaps, they have no option other than going to court to find out what really happened. The lack of such a specialized organization also makes it difficult for medical workers to thoroughly clarify from a medical viewpoint causes of unexpected serious accidents.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has carried out studies into the establishment of a national organization tentatively called the medical safety investigation commission. In June 2008, the ministry released a proposed outline of a bill for the establishment of the commission.

According to the outline, all medical accidents must be reported to the commission, which reports the causes of accidents to victims in an attempt to dispel suspicions. At the same time, the commission publicizes the results of its investigations to medical institutions so that the medical world as a whole can share accident information to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.

The proposed bill requires medical institutions to report to the commission when medical accidents occur. Once medical institutions report to the commission, they do not have to file police reports.

The commission will report malicious cases to police when it finds intentional malpractice, attempts to cover up accidents, falsification of medical records, medical practices that significantly deviate from standard procedure and medical workers who repeatedly make mistakes.

Initially, the bill was expected to be submitted to the Diet within the last year. However, after the outline was released, some in medical circles raised objections. As a result, the bill has not yet been submitted to the Diet.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Japan, which recently took power, has come up with a counterproposal. However, it contains several flaws.

Firstly, it calls for medical institutions to set up internal investigative committees to look into the causes of accidents.

The nation's medical institutions have a long history of covering up accidents and repeatedly falsifying records. Given such a track record, there is no way we can simply trust them to carry out impartial investigations on their own.

Furthermore, with the exception of a limited number of major hospitals, medical institutions do not have the capability to establish committees for fair and authoritative in-house investigations.

My oldest son suffered temporary respiratory arrest 26 years ago because of inappropriate post-surgical management after undergoing surgery at a university hospital. He suffered heavy brain damage and remained in a coma for nearly 23 years until he died three years ago.

Based on entries in a log kept by nursing staff, it was clear the damage was caused by negligence on the part of the hospital. After the hospital refused to admit its mistake, I filed a lawsuit against it. At the trial, the court found the hospital at fault. I know for a fact that even major hospitals are reluctant to admit wrongdoing. I doubt the DPJ plan is capable of determining the truth, given this strong inclination among medical institutions to deny culpability.

In the process leading up to the announcement of the health ministry's bill, a ministry study group heard the views of many people and invited the public to submit their opinions about its draft proposal, many of which were incorporated into the bill.

The DPJ administration says its top priority is the everyday life of the people. I urge it to consider the feelings of victims of medical accidents and pass the ministry's bill as soon as possible.

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The author is the father of a medical accident victim.(IHT/Asahi: December 5,2009)