Medical Liability in Europe at the Dawn of Cross-border Healthcare: Time to Reflect on the Possibility of Harmonising the Policies Regarding Medical Liability?

What is it about?

Since the Directive 2011/24/EU has become domestic law in EU Member States, citizens will start seeking cross-border healthcare services in other EU countries. However, given that errors do happen in medicine, the significant differences with respect to compensation systems might discourage patients from seeking healthcare in another Member State- where it would be more difficult to obtain compensation if things do not go well and the patient suffers from medical error. Given that formal measures to harmonise redress systems have not been adopted, their convergence is currently infeasible. Nevertheless, Member States could achieve a natural convergence through the gradual adoption of common principles. The article will try to propose these principles and emphasize the key objectives reform in medical liability rules should aim at.

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