Amphia must pay the surgeon about eight tons of damage

Amphia Hospital must pay a cardiothoracic surgeon with whom the cooperation was canceled in 2014, a final compensation of about eight tons. The Hertogenbosch appeal court finds that the hospital acted carelessly and illegally towards the doctor.

An incident occurred in 2012 was the prelude to a dispute between a cardiothoracic surgeon and ultimately his own partnership, a partnership of anesthetists, a partnership of cardiologists, the association of medical staff of Amphia and the direction of the hospital. This can be inferred from the court decisions in the dispute, which the judge of the court ruled this month.

One day in August 2012, the cardiothoracic surgeon exchanged words with a colleague in his partnership, on which the surgeon left the hospital. while he had to actually operate: his patient was already under anesthesia. He returned, but because of his emotional state, he decided in consultation that a colleague would perform the operation.

After this incident, the anesthesiology and cardiology companies of Amphia had little confidence in the surgeon and had long doubts. had its surgical qualities – this in response to complications in a number of surgeon's patients. His own partnership initially supported him in this area; this would have to do with the fact that he has operated relatively many high-risk patients. But the partnership of cardiothoracic surgeons complained of his behavior in the partnership: the surgeon lost his administration, arrived too late and did not respect the agreements.

The surgeon proposed to let an objective expert evaluate the quality of his work, and to resolve all mutual friction through mediation. There ensued a period during which he was sent on special leave, and the medical staff association and the hospital management were involved in the mutual conflicts. The health care inspection then discussed the case, but due to inconsistencies in case management, it could not reach a conclusion on the medical-technical actions. On the advice of the Inspectorate, experts from the NVT (Dutch Association of Thoracic Surgery) then examined its actions.

In the problems of trust and cooperation and doubts about medical treatment, the hospital management finally saw the need for cooperation. The 62-year-old surgeon resigned in March 2014. The surgeon then went to court to claim compensation and rehabilitation.

The Zeeland-West Brabant District Court ruled in late 2016 that the hospital had not shown any medical malfunction. cooperation. There was also insufficient evidence that the surgeon was not working well together, and if the problems in this area were only his fault. This judge estimated that the surgeon was entitled to compensation for losses of income and pension of about 8 tons. The Amphia hospital and the medical staff association fought this decision on appeal, but to no avail.

The court of appeal supports the decision of the court. It is unfortunate that the surgeon was indirectly informed for a long time that there was a critical condition on its operation, without this being realized. "The court said" not with him, but on him critically. "The medical staff association and hospital management have long since failed to call on an outside expert to investigate the medical functioning and have too quickly taken the road to the end of the cooperation, which led to a "polarization." According to the court, the argument of patient safety that these parties have supported does not did not apply since the doctor did not exist since December 2012.

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