Korea has far more criminal punishment cases against physicians for their medical malpractices than advanced countries, such as the U.K. and Germany, a local health expert said.

For instance, the U.K. convicted only four doctors in six years while Korea punished 670 doctors for manslaughter by occupational negligence.

Ahn Duk-sun, director of the Korean Medical Association’s medical policy research institute, released his analysis on overseas cases of penalizing doctors at a debate on Thursday. “A situation not seen in any other country in the world is taking place in Korea,” he said.

Ahn analyzed papers on criminal punishment for healthcare professionals released in the U.K., France, and Germany and compared them with Korea. He pointed out that the three countries rarely punished doctors for medical malpractice.

Korea has far more criminal punishment cases against physicians for their medical malpractices than advanced countries, an expert said.
Korea has far more criminal punishment cases against physicians for their medical malpractices than advanced countries, an expert said.

Ahn cited a report by the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care, saying there were only four cases where doctors were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter between January 2013 and March 2018.

In contrast, Korea reported 670 cases where doctors were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter during the same period. The number of criminal punishments for medical malpractice increased from 92 in 2013 to 130 in 2018.

The number of doctors in the U.K. is about twice that of Korea.

France rarely reported penalizing doctors for medical errors. A report, “Plaintes et condamnations concernant des médecins généralistes : analyse des jurisprudences et des déclarations de sinistre au cours des 26 dernières années,” published in 2015, showed that France reported 39 cases of criminal charges against general practitioners for medical malpractice and only 14 were found guilty. Among the 14, 13 received probation, and one was fined.

Ahn also said 543 French physicians received criminal charges in 25 years between 1986 and 2011, and 268, or 39.2 percent, were found guilty. The number is less than half of 670 cases reported in Korea in six years. As of 2020, France had about 200,000 physicians.

Of the 543 French doctors with criminal prosecution, 48 percent were charged with occupational negligence homicide, 10.1 percent, rape and sexual harassment, and 9.1 percent, bystander, threat, and concealment. Among 268 convicted, 71.1 percent received jail terms.

Germany is known to punish doctors for medical malpractice but barely did so in reality. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the country reported only six criminal punishment cases on doctors from 2013 to 2019, and most of them were fined.

“In theory, it is possible to penalize doctors for medical mishap in the U.S. and Canada, but it was difficult to find a case in reality. In Ontario, Canada, there was only one punishment case in 108 years,” Ahn said.

He emphasized that these countries are wary of punishing medical malpractice because it does not help improve healthcare quality and makes physicians defensive about patient care.

“Korea is the world's best country to penalize doctors. It is unfair to nullify a medical license if a doctor is found guilty under the Criminal Act,” Ahn said. He added that California mandates a doctor to report criminal punishment to the Medical Board of California.

“There should be a review process by an independent licensing management body,” he added.

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