In Vietnam, the medical legislation termed “Law on Medical Examination and Treatment” does not link strongly with Civil Law, Criminal Law, and Administrative Law to protect patients. To a large extent, all of these laws don’t mention the patients’ rights, while ironically, people assume that the medical, legal framework provides strong protection. To their (patients) dismay, it usually becomes impractical to solve suits legally whenever medical malpractice occurs. There are alarming numbers of cases of patients’ rights violations year by year due to medical unprofessionalism and weak, overlapping, and contradictory medical law. This has caused mistrust of the medical system leading to the out-flux of Vietnamese patients to neighboring countries to seek treatment. As the violation of the patients’ rights occurs, how does the available medical legislation play its role? It’s widely documented that there are rampant malpracticesmisdiagnosis and wrong treatment caused by non-adherence to medical ethics and the gross shortcomings in the medical legal system. Some medical malpractices are criminalized passively only through administrative penalties at the expense of the patients' dignity. This paper will provide a detailed analysis of the above issues: Vietnamese medical law, its strength and shortcomings, medical malpractices, and how the practitioners live with it and suggest some benchmarks to align the medical law comparatively to other developing or developed countries economies.
Tạp chí khoa học Trường Đại học Cần Thơ
Lầu 4, Nhà Điều Hành, Khu II, đường 3/2, P. Xuân Khánh, Q. Ninh Kiều, TP. Cần Thơ
Điện thoại: (0292) 3 872 157; Email: tapchidhct@ctu.edu.vn
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