Legal Liability for Medical Risk in Hospital Healthcare Services Based on Therapeutic Transactions
Keywords:
legal liability; medical risk; therapeutic transaction; informed consent; hospitalAbstract
Informed consent to a medical procedure is the foundation of the legal relationship and contractual obligation between a patient and a physician or other healthcare professional within a therapeutic transaction. As medical science and technology advance, health law evolves with them, and one significant development is the enactment of Law No. 17 of 2023 concerning Health (the Health Law), which addresses the formulation of informed consent. In practice, however, informed consent is frequently structured through standard clauses prepared to simplify the formation of the therapeutic agreement. This study addresses two problems: first, how legal liability for medical risk in hospital-based therapeutic transactions is regulated; and second, how such liability is borne in practice. It is a normative legal study that employs a statutory approach and a conceptual approach, and it analyses legal materials using descriptive, systematic, evaluative and argumentative techniques. The findings show that liability is regulated principally in Articles 56 to 58 of the Health Law, which require physicians to comply with the Indonesian Code of Medical Ethics, professional standards and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and to hold the administrative documents needed to practise, namely a Registration Certificate (STR) and a Practice License (SIP). Hospital liability depends heavily on the legal relationship between medical personnel and the hospital. Where the relationship is one of employment, the hospital is liable for the unlawful acts of its employees under Article 1367 paragraph (3) of the Indonesian Civil Code. Where it is contractual, for example where physicians lease hospital facilities, the hospital is generally not liable for the acts or negligence of the medical personnel that harm patients or their families.
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