Cairo ¨C Late at night in a Cairo public hospital, a young doctor treating a patient in severe pain found the CT scanner was broken, so relying on his clinical judgment alone, he performed an emergency appendectomy.
¡°It was a calculated risk,¡± he said. ¡°But under the new malpractice law ... I wouldn¡¯t have taken that chance. I would have discharged the patient and waited for him to seek a CT scan elsewhere ¡ª even if it meant the patient¡¯s appendix ruptured.¡±
This scenario, recounted anonymously, underscores the fears many Egyptian doctors have voiced over a draft medical malpractice law that intends to address patients¡¯ complaints about poor treatment by imposing punitive measures, including fines and the detention of doctors who give substandard care.
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