Claims Against Doctors in Portugal Are Rising and Awards Growing, Público Reports: What Patients Harmed by Medical Error Can Do
Claims against doctors are rising and awards are growing, Público reports, with private-practice doctors the most exposed. Here is what the patients' rights law says about consent and compensation, and how to complain or seek mediation through the health regulator.
Patients in Portugal are suing doctors more often, and the damages awarded are getting larger, Público reported on Tuesday. There are no official figures for the total number of civil liability claims against doctors, the newspaper says, but lawyers working in the field describe a rising trend. In some cases doctors have had to pay from their own pockets the part of an award their insurance did not cover.
According to Público, doctors in private practice carry the most risk and the least protection, including surgeons who operate in private hospitals on SNS patients they have not met before. Insurance cover, the paper says, has not kept pace with the size of the awards. The Ordem dos Médicos, the doctors' professional body, fears that tougher rulings will push doctors towards "defensive medicine".
Consent is more than a signature
A second Público report looks at doctors convicted for failing to explain the risks of surgery. A signed consent form is not enough on its own, it reports: the doctor has to make sure the patient understood what was at stake.
That duty is written into the patients' rights law, Lei n.º 15/2014. Article 3 says consent to treatment, or refusal of it, must be given freely and on an informed basis, and that a patient may withdraw it at any point during care. Article 7 gives patients the right to be told about their condition, the possible alternative treatments and how their condition is likely to develop, in a way that is accessible, objective, complete and intelligible. Article 9 gives every patient the right to complain and "to receive compensation for harm suffered".
Public and private care work differently
The gap Público describes between the two sectors has a legal basis. Under Lei n.º 67/2007, which governs the civil liability of the State and other public bodies, the public body alone answers for harm caused by its staff through ordinary negligence ("culpa leve"). Staff become personally liable only where they acted deliberately or with gross negligence. Even then the public body is liable alongside them, and it must then recover the money from the person responsible.
Timing matters. That law applies the Civil Code rule, article 498, under which a right to compensation expires three years after the injured person learned they had it.
What you can do if you were harmed
- Get your clinical file first. You have a right to it, and any complaint or claim will depend on it; our guide explains how to request your medical records, and the health regulator has ruled against providers who stall.
- Complain in writing. The health regulator, the ERS, says on its complaints page that the right applies to everyone, whatever their nationality or residence. Use the provider's complaints book (private and social providers must also offer the electronic one) or the ERS's own online form. Providers must send every complaint to the ERS, with their reply, within 10 working days, and a provider who refuses you the book can be reported to the PSP or GNR on the spot, according to the ERS.
- Know what a complaint does. The ERS can issue instructions or sanctions, but a complaint does not settle a dispute. For that, the regulator offers free, voluntary mediation between patients and providers, and points to arbitration through a university arbitration centre. A court claim is the other route.
For billing disputes, which follow a separate track, see our guide to disputing a hospital or clinic bill.
