The Faculty of Law of the University of Girona is hosting international conferences this Wednesday and Thursday focused on the need for a law on medical and health civil liability. The meeting brings together about fifty experts from the academic, judicial, insurance, and health fields from several European countries.
The event comes at a time when medical liability lawsuits are increasing and, at the same time, the risk that this coverage will become unaffordable for insurers is growing. Miquel Martín, emeritus professor of Civil Law, warns that this combination could compromise compensation for injured patients.
Miquel Martín warns that the increase in lawsuits could drive away insurers
Martín maintains that the number of reported cases has grown rapidly in recent years. In his opinion, this trend raises fears that medical liability will cease to be insurable and that insurance companies will end up withdrawing from this market.
If this scenario occurs, the consequence would directly affect patients who have suffered harm and must be compensated. The debate opened in Girona is thus not limited to the volume of litigation, but also to the viability of the system that must respond economically to these cases.
At this point, the professor questions whether in Spain the response has been to focus on the health scale. Martín understands that this model, proposed in a similar way to traffic accidents, would lead to lower compensation for injured patients.
The UdG proposes a law regulating care quality, risks, and insurance
The conferences advocate for a broader approach than the scale and place a law on medical and health civil liability at the center. The proposal involves regulating the quality of services, risk management, alternative mechanisms to avoid going to court, civil liability rules, and the role of insurance.
Jordi Ribot, director of the Institut de Dret Privat Europeu i Comparat, frames the meeting within the center's line of work. Ribot emphasizes that the initiative responds to the vocation of studying private law from a European and comparative perspective.
The program brings together in Girona magistrates, professors, lawyers, and representatives from the insurance and healthcare sectors from Italy, France, and Portugal. The composition of the meeting seeks to contrast models and responses applied in different countries to conflicts that combine medical practice, damage repair, and insurance coverage.
With this call, the University of Girona reinforces its activity in applied legal research and its role as a forum for debate on issues with social and health impact. The event brings together for two days a fifty experts from various European countries at the Faculty of Law.