Medical disputes pushed to arbitration

A new regulation will require public medical institutions to inform patients that they have the option to settle their medical disputes through arbitration if the case involves a claim of more than 30,000 yuan ($4,938) , a city official said at a press conference Thursday.

The regulation, which goes into effect next month, is one of several new rules that aim to steer more aggrieved patients to the city's medical arbitration system, rather than letting their complaints pile up at local hospitals, said Li Heping, vice director of the Shanghai Medical Dispute People's Arbitration Office.

"There have been a lot of unsolved disputes accumulating at public hospitals. We want to push more of them into medical arbitration by informing more families about the system," Li said.

Patients in about 75 percent of medical dispute cases have demanded more than 30,000 yuan in compensation, Li said.

The medical arbitration system began in 2006 as a pilot program in several districts, but it received few cases until it was instituted citywide in 2011. Last year, local medical arbitration offices dealt with 3,087 cases and resolved about 80 percent of them.

Before the arbitration system was instituted, aggrieved patients had to take their complaints to the local health authorities. Otherwise, they had to negotiate a settlement with the hospital on their own or file a lawsuit.

Li acknowledged that many patients have been dismissive about arbitration because they don't trust the system.

Li asserted that the arbitration offices are impartial organizations because they receive funding directly from the district and municipal governments, rather than the city's health agencies. Consequently, they aren't connected with local hospitals.

When a dispute enters arbitration, the office will assign two arbitrators who are experts in either law or medicine to handle the case.

The arbitrators have a pool of about 800 medical experts that they can consult to come up with a fair resolution to a case.

Arbitrators with connections to a medical institution involved in a case must recuse themselves.

Li said that the arbitration offices will be able to ensure that medical experts give unbiased opinions through the joint supervision of both the medical and judicial authorities.

However, unlike some medical arbitration systems in other cities, patients in Shanghai do not have the right to select which arbitrators will handle their cases, said a senior official surnamed Shang from the Shanghai Justice Bureau.