Sixty-one disciplinary actions were taken by Bahrain’s health regulator after a 16 per cent increase in year-on-year medical investigations.
In its annual report released yesterday, the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) reported that there were a total of 248 cases investigated in 2022.
Approximately 17.3pc of these investigations resulted in the detection of medical errors ... although the full scale of the most serious complaints have not yet been outlined.
However, three lost their licences, 17 complaints resulted in a suspension and 16 faced fines.
The breakdown of the disciplinary actions taken
In the previous three years, 213 investigations were conducted in 2021, 271 in 2020 and 257 in 2019.
“There are three types of patient complaints – direct complaints, lawsuits referred by courts and those reported by medical professionals or facilities,” NHRA chief executive Dr Mariam Al Jalahma told the GDN during the Press conference discussing the annual report for 2022.
Dr Al Jalahma
“In the case of direct and court-referred complaints, we get an expert’s opinion from one or two medical professionals. If they conclude that there is a medical error, we investigate further and forward our findings to the main committee, which then gives the accused medical professional the right to defend themselves.
“If we determine that all appropriate procedures were followed, the case is closed and the patient is informed, who always has the right to go to court again.
“Not all complaints are major – some are as minor as a laser burn or a minor dental procedure gone wrong. When the medical error is not major, the decision is of course, lighter as well.”
Of the 248 cases investigated in 2022, 188 were patient complaints, 57 were lawsuits and three were incidents reported by medical professionals or facilities.
Amongst the 61 disciplinary actions taken, 29 were against doctors, 18 were against facilities, eight were against pharmacies and pharmacists and six were against nurses.
Written warnings were issued in 19 of these cases, while 17 complaints resulted in a suspension, 16 received a financial penalty, five were found to have committed no violations when the disciplinary action was taken, three resulted in licences being revoked, and one case was rejected by the accountability committee.
The NHRA also reported that 256 violations were corrected during its 1,271 inspection visits to medical facilities, while 386 violations were corrected during the 630 inspection visits to pharmacies.
These highlights were announced during a Press conference in which Dr Al Jalahma noted that the authority was able to achieve its goals and meet 90pc of its key performance indicators, the most prominent of which is achieving international recognition of its standards for evaluating the performance of hospitals by the International Society for Health Care Quality (ISQua).
Dr Al Jalahma also highlighted the three large-scale medical investment projects approved by the NHRA – Bahrain Pharma, a medicine manufacturing facility that produces cough syrups and Omega-3 capsules; the King Hamad American Mission Hospital and the Gulf American Hospital. The NHRA’s investors office also received 45 enquiries for investment in the private sector.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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