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'''Complaints that hospitals can’t resolve'''—each health authority has a '''[https://www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca/makecomplaint.html Patient Care Quality Office]''' to deal with complaints that hospitals cannot resolve. Each health authority also has a '''[http://www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca/ Patient Care Quality Review Board]'''. They review complaints that the [https://www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca/makecomplaint.html Patient Care Quality Offices] have not resolved. For more information, call 1.866.952.2448 or see the [http://www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca/ Boards’ website].
'''Patients are responsible too—as too'''—as a patient, you have the power to manage your healthcare. You must give the doctor all the important information about your condition, your medical history, and any other relevant information. If you don’t, and that leads to an error in diagnosis or treatment, it will be your fault, not the doctor’s. As well, a doctor is not responsible for problems if you don’t follow the doctor’s advice and your failure causes the problem. For example, if you get sick after surgery, it would be hard to prove that a surgeon was negligent in operating on you, if you don’t follow the surgeon’s instructions for recovery.
=Failure to get a patient’s informed consent=
A doctor has to tell you about your condition, the nature of the proposed treatment, the risks of the treatment, and other options that you may have. You can’t consent to treatment unless the doctor gives you all this information. A doctor does not have to explain every possible risk, just the serious risks that a reasonable patient would want to know before deciding on treatment. This includes explaining what could happen and the likelihood of it happening.
If you suffer an injury or illness after medical treatment, and it was a known risk that your doctor did not tell you about before you agreed to the treatment, it could be malpractice. A court will consider whether a reasonable person would have consented to the treatment if they had been told of the risks. In some cases, the failure to get informed consent may also be an assault. If you have experienced an assault during medical treatment, you can contact the police.
=A third, complicated type of malpractice=
Besides negligence and lack of informed consent, there is a third type of malpractice. Recently, courts have said doctors may be responsible if they break the patient-doctor contract. This is a complicated area of malpractice law, not covered by this script. For example, one issue may be who has a contract with the doctor: you or the Medical Services Plan. You would need a lawyer to see if this applies to your case.
=Suing because of malpractice—legal advice and time limits =
If you have questions or concerns about your treatment, talk to your doctor. Then, if you feel that you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, get legal advice right away.
Suing for malpractice can take a long time—often 2 to 5 years or more from start to finish.
'''Costs of suing—some suing'''—some lawyers will work for a contingency fee, meaning the fee depends on the result of the case. If you lose, the lawyer gets nothing. If you win, the lawyer gets part of your compensation award. Win or lose, though, you usually have to pay the expenses of suing, which can be thousands of dollars, especially if you have to hire experts to help prove your case. The Law Society regulates contingency fee contracts to ensure they are fair to clients. For more information about lawyers’ fees, check script [[Script 438]], called “Lawyers’ Fees”.
=Complaining to the College at the same time as suing=You can also file a complaint with the [http://www.cpsbc.ca/ College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC]. There is no time limit for complaining to the College. And you can do this at the same time as you sue for malpractice and contact the police if you think you were assaulted. But the College cannot order a doctor to pay you money—only a court can do that. Script 423, called “Making a Complaint against Your Doctor” explains how to file a complaint. Contact the College through its website or call it at 604.733.7758 in Vancouver and 1.800.461.3008 elsewhere in BC.
[updated March 2016]