Health law · Legal information

Who Is the Defendant in a Malpractice Action?

Author · Av. Ayşenur Konar, Avukat

Published ·

In short

The defendant in a malpractice action is not the physician's name on the sign. According to the type of institution it is the administration, the operator, or the physician. The physician's name on the sign is not accepted so that it itself passes to the opponent in the petition. The wrong opponent does not open the discussion of fault.

The insurer can be an addressee limited by the cover. A damages figure is not in this note. The type of court is followed from the which court page. The list of names is not locked without the record and the title.

The opponent in a public hospital

In a state or university hospital the health service is the administration's work. A claim of harm becomes the subject of a full remedy action on the line of an administrative action. The defendant in the petition is the administration that carries on the service. The physician's personal name appears in the account of the act. This account does not make them the defendant of the civil courts. A disciplinary investigation does not stand in for the patient's action.

The administration can have recourse to the staff if the conditions are met. Recourse is not a copy of the patient's application. The patient should not take the recourse file for their own opponent. Which administration carried on the service is read from the patient-admission document and from the institution's writing. A university and a ministry hospital are not the same legal person. A mixed title takes the petition to the wrong door.

The operator and the physician in a private institution

In a private hospital the invoice, the contract, and the information most often belong to the company. The physician who actually performed the operation or the intervention stands separately. A fault of organisation concerns the operator in a gap of duty, equipment, blood, an intensive-care bed, and referral. The personal standard of practice concerns the physician. The two can be written in one petition. This does not mean the two are liable in the same share.

A laboratory, an imaging centre, or a consultant who comes from outside may not be the same legal person as the hospital. The title and the contract build the list of opponents. In an independent practice the opponent is, as a rule, the physician who undertook the intervention. The management of the room or the building is not a party to the medical act. If the trade title on the invoice conflicts with the name on the sign, the title is taken as the basis.

The limit of the insurer

There is compulsory financial liability insurance for medical malpractice for physicians, dentists, and specialists. The person who suffered harm can ask the insurer directly for the part up to the sum insured. Harm that exceeds the sum remains with the person responsible under the general provisions. A limit figure is not in this note. The reading of the policy is followed from the compulsory insurance page.

The insurer can put forward defences of the policy, the risk, and an exclusion. A period without a policy, or notice never having been given, can narrow the cover. The insurer is not written as the single opponent in place of the physician or the hospital. The part that exceeds the cover stays in the capacity of the principal person responsible. A copy of the policy is read together with the line of the period and of the risk. An incomplete policy does not itself widen the list of opponents.

How the opponent is separated

First, whether the institution is public or private is read from the patient-admission document. The company title on the invoice is separated from the physician's name on the sign. Which period the insurance cover includes is compared with the policy and with the date of the intervention. The three capacities are not melted into the same sentence.

A lawyer in Ankara who builds the list of opponents first asks for the type of institution and the title on the invoice. The office in Çankaya does not change the competent court. Jurisdiction is read from the place where the service was given and from the capacity of the institution. The office address does not make the administration the defendant of the civil courts. Whichever province the record shows, the petition is built according to that record.

Who should not be written

A sterilisation and an infection of the stay are not built by writing the name of a member of the team. The chain of organisation is followed from the hospital infection page. A nurse, an anaesthesia technician, or an assistant does not become a defendant merely because they appeared on the team. If the record has their act, a gap of supervision, or an independent decision, the sentence is built. A drug company is not the automatic opponent of a physician's error.

A relative of the patient can be a claimant in their own capacity for a claim of loss of support. This does not mix them into the list of defendants. How the evidence is collected is followed from the preservation of evidence page. The minutes and the discharge summary are the document of the choice of opponent. Adding a name while the document is missing does not widen the action. A consultation note does not itself make the person who wrote the note a defendant.

Conclusion

The opponent is read from the type of institution. In a public service the administration stands, in a private operation the company and, where needed, the physician, and in insurance the insurer up to the cover. The upper frame sits on the health law page. The official basis is the text of Law No. 1219 and Law No. 2577. The list of names is not locked without the record and the title.

Legislation

Frequently asked questions

Is an action brought personally against the physician in a public hospital?

In a full remedy claim arising from a public health service, the opponent is, as a rule, the administration. The physician's name stands in the account of the event. This does not mean an action brought against them in the civil courts. The administration's possibility of recourse is separate.

In a private hospital are both the physician and the company written?

They can be written, but the same act and the same share are not assumed. The physician's fault in practice, and the hospital's gap in organisation, equipment, staff, and records, need a separate sentence. The company title that issues the invoice is read apart from the physician's name on the sign.

Does the insurance company become the defendant on its own?

The person who suffered harm can ask the insurer directly for the part of the harm up to the sum insured. The part that exceeds the cover stays outside the insurance. The policy limit is not a figure in this note. The detail is followed from the note on compulsory insurance.

Is an assistant or a consultant an automatic defendant?

No. Who performed the intervention, who supervised, and who wrote the consultation note is read from the record. A title does not itself share out the responsibility.

Related reading

This article sits under one practice area. The neighbouring guides carry the detail that does not belong in this text.

Practice areas · Health law

Sources

AK

Author

Av. Ayşenur Konar

Lawyer on the Ankara Bar Association roll, founder of Konar Hukuk. This text is general information; a specific file is reviewed separately. Author profile · Editorial policy

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