Issue About The Informing Obligations Of Healthcare

The informing obligations of healthcare are that a doctor must tell a patientabout disease informations, treatment methods and the clinical risks. They are notonly statutory obligations to be fulfilled in the process of medical practices, but alsobasis and conditions of realising the rights of informed consent. In China, theimplementation of the informing obligations of healthcare is not ideal, the provisionsof system are not perfect. According to relevant statistics, the medical malpracticedisputes which happened in recent years, but more than60%are caused by doctorsnot performing a medical inform obligation, then injured the patient-related rights andinterests. At the legislative level, although article55of Tort Liability law made therelevant provisions for the informing obligations of healthcare and the rights ofinformed consent, but system of the informing obligations of healthcare is not perfect,for example,the content the informing obligations of healthcare,the standard of therealisation and the scope of compensation, etc., Tort Liability law does not have thespecific provisions. In a foreign country, even the origin—the United States, therestill exist a lot of controversies in the content of the obligation, judgement standard,exceptions. All reasons, I think that there is need for further research on the informingobligations of healthcare.The first part is the basic theory of the informing obligations of healthcare.It isthat the medical staff inform patients on clinic matters during the medical process.This obligation is developed on the basis of "informed consent theory", the system isdesigned to achieve the patient’s right of informed consent, protect the legitimaterights and interests of patients. The emerge of the medical inform obligation derivedfrom the body cause to of negligence cause of action, an important criterion of thenegligence in cause of action is whether doctor fulfill the inform obligation, so themedical inform obligation came into being, hold lawful profitable and contractual characteristics.The second part is the subject and object of the informing obligations ofhealthcare.The main question is who is going to inform, the medical staff as theobligation of the main body should fulfill this obligation, but also include othermedical personnel, nurses, pharmacists, and testing laboratory personnel; objectproblem is inform the problem to whom, through the contrast analysis, legislativeinterpretation and other methods, the main body of the inform obligation is patientsand their close relatives, patients were told that based on the patient’s right ofinformed consent, and their close relatives should be informed is based upon thepower of attorney rather than the right to informed consent. Rights to informedconsent is the patient’s own right, no one can be deprived of.The third part of the article is the content and exceptions of the informingobligations of healthcare Medical staff should inform patients what kind of medicalinformation and under what circumstances may not inform is in this section of thekey to solve the problems. Through the comparative analysis, the article points outboth the traditional medical inform obligation of the content and analyzes the tortliability law enacted to inform obligation content after medical new division, thegeneral obligation and special obligation. Absorbing from abroad of the content of theinform obligations, putting forward their own proposals on our medical obligationimprovement.The fourth part of the article mainly discusses the judgment standard of theinforming obligations of healthcare.This section is mainly to solve the scope problemabout the medical inform obligation. About the judgment standard inform obligationinclude "reasonable doctor standard","reasonable patients standard" and "specificpatients standard", the author analysis the pros and cons of the various criteria, thenput forward “reasonable patients with specific standards ", and with case analysis toexpounds its feasibility in practice.The fifth part of the article mainly discusses the legal consequences of breach ofthis obligation. The informing obligations of healthcare have both lawful profitableand contractual characteristics, so on the legal responsibility it is also a breach ofcontract and tort liability. This paper focuses on discussion on tort liability of breaching this obligation. Breaching of this inform obligation should take theprinciple of fault liability, when the doctors did not fulfill the obligation resulting inthe consequences of the damage, and consequences of the damage have a causalrelationship with did not fulfill the inform obligation, should take tort liability. As tothe scope of the damages, learning from Japan’s theoretical circles research, at thesame time combined with China’s judicial practice, proposed "a new fullcompensation"—on the one hand, the government should reduce the burden on themedical side reasonably; on the other hand, the government should fully protect theright of informed consent and provide reasonable compensation for the damage.