Doctors are concerned about the decriminalization of their activities

And they decided to carry out reforms in the industry

A number of functions of the Ministry of Health in the field of Healthcare can be transferred to a professional association of doctors – the National Medical Chamber, headed by the famous doctor Leonid Roshal. In particular, doctors believe that they themselves will be able to develop standards and regulate everything related to training. This was announced at the IX Congress of the National Chamber, held in the capital.

On October 11, the Ministry of Health adopted an order that the National Medical Chamber may be transferred to carry out certain functions in the field of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced this at the congress. Participants of the congress believe that already in the first quarter of 2024 the functions of accreditation, development of professional standards, continuous professional education, admission to the profession, etc. can be transferred to the NMP.

“We are now raising the question of when and what functions the Ministry of Health is ready to transfer to us. This would be a big step forward. Our goal is 100% unification of all doctors throughout the country, as has already been done in some countries. When each member of the medical community is responsible to him, and the medical community itself is responsible for each doctor, it protects patients from low-quality specialists, depriving them of the right to practice medicine,” said Leonid Roshal, President of the NMP Union.

The NMP plans to improve the qualifications of Russian doctors by creating a system of admission to the profession, which requires physicians to comply with strict standards. At the same time, for almost 10 years the Chamber has been accrediting doctors on a voluntary basis: over the past three years, 684,720 specialists have been accredited.

In addition, the NMP proposes to allow professional retraining of specialists only in government organizations. And also – to introduce criminal liability for issuing documents on advanced training by organizations that do not have a license.

An important proposal of the Chamber also concerns the responsibility of those graduating from targeted enrollment. According to the participants of the Congress, it is necessary to increase penalties for those who complete training according to the target recruitment and have not started working in the organization that sent the future doctor for training (300% of the amount spent on training), and also to allow the admission of doctors who complete training according to the target recruitment, for residency only with the consent of the institution that sent the future doctor for training.

Doctors also took the initiative to remove the term “service” from the law in relation to medical care. “This issue is very acute. Of course, avoiding the term “service” does not guarantee complete protection from prosecutorial prosecution. But we are moving away from the most terrible article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The topic of decriminalization of medical practice is still very pressing,” emphasizes Leonid Roshal.

To protect doctors, the Congress delegates consider it necessary to introduce a clause from Federal Law No. 323 on compulsory insurance of professional risks for medical workers. And also to develop and implement a unified professional liability insurance system for the entire medical community, entrusting the entire process of protecting the doctor and paying compensation recognized by the court to the insurance company. “Insurance companies must protect us, providing full legal support, with lawyers. This has already been well established in the world. If patients have complaints against doctors, they should not have a headache,” emphasizes Leonid Roshal.

The doctors intend to submit all proposals to the authorities in the very near future.