Katarzyna Bargiel

Human health and life are the most important values, which is why all means are used to protect them. In certain situations, in the case of mentally ill people, the protection of these legal interests is in direct conflict with the protection of the constitutional right to freedom. The Act of 19 August 1994 on the protection of mental health provides for the possibility of using coercion against people with mental disorders who, due to their illness, pose a threat to their own life or other persons’ health or life or significantly paralyze the work of a medical unit. In some cases, it is also possible to admit and treat a mentally ill person in a psychiatric hospital without their consent, if there is a legal basis for such action.

The professional secrecy of a doctor and a physiotherapist is a guaranteed confidentiality in the relationship with the patient. After the patient’s death, professional secrecy is a proof of respect for their privacy. Professional secrecy is regulated by the Act on Patient Rights as well as legal acts regarding the relevant medical professions, and supervised by the Patient’s Rights Ombudsman. After the patient’s death, close relatives become the holders of his medical information. A relative has the right to release a healthcare worker from the professional secrecy and define the exact scope of its disclosure. A dispute occurs when close relatives disagree or their opinion differs from that of the patient. In such a case, disputes are resolved by a civil court.

The notion of medical error hasn’t been defined clearly enough in legal terms. Numerous authors have presented various definitions of a medical error – the essence of the concept and the common element of the definitions is the action of a healthcare worker that is incompatible with the requirements of current medical knowledge. Unfortunately, the phenomenon of medical error is becoming more and more common. A large percentage of patients declare that they have been harmed by a medical error and there is an upward trend in the number of medical malpractice cases investigated by the prosecutor’s office. There are different types of medical error, which can be classified as follows: diagnostic, therapeutic, technical, prognostic, organizational and informational error. A healthcare worker is subject to criminal, civil and professional liability for committing a medical error. According to the criminal law, a medical error is usually a criminal offence of failure to act, because the healthcare worker is liable for patient’s health and life. A healthcare worker may be convicted by criminal court after fulfilling the characteristics of one of the prohibited acts specified by the penal code.