Force Majeure Delivery Accidents Fully Covered by the State... 'Medical Dispute Mediation Act' Amendment Passes Judiciary Committee

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that the partial amendment to the "Act on Relief of Medical Accidents and Adjustment of Medical Disputes" (Medical Dispute Adjustment Act), which stipulates that the state will bear the entire cost of compensation for unavoidable medical accidents occurring during childbirth, passed the plenary session of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 25th.

The unavoidable childbirth medical accident compensation project is a program in which the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency provides compensation of up to 30 million KRW to patients for childbirth medical accidents that occurred inevitably despite medical personnel fulfilling their duty of care during the childbirth process.

Until now, the funding for the unavoidable childbirth medical accident compensation project has been shared with 70% borne by the state and 30% by the operators of healthcare institutions with childbirth performance. In response, the government has announced a plan to increase the state's share of funding for the compensation project as part of essential medical support measures.

Lee Hyung-hyun, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "We hope that once the amendment passes the plenary session, the decrease in childbirth medical institutions due to the burden of medical disputes and the avoidance of obstetrics and gynecology residents will be alleviated."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.