The Court of Appeal in Den Bosch has found GGZ Eindhoven guilty of the death of a 29-year-old patient. Last Wednesday, 22 March, the Court sentenced the GGZ institution to a conditional fine of 19,500 euros. Martin Buijsen, Professor of Health Law at Erasmus School of Law, explains why the case is unique.
The case revolves around the death of a 29-year-old woman who was struggling with psychosis. In April 2013, she had herself admitted to the emergency psychiatry ward to try a different type of medication. However, the medication caused serious side effects. Even so bad that the woman’s family raised the alarm. The mental health institution failed to react accordingly to this warning and the woman died of heart failure less than a month later.
Extra blameworthy
The court earlier acquitted the care institution. The Court now returned a different verdict; prior to the patient’s death, there were many shortcomings. The attending physician should have followed the patient more closely because of the serious side effects, there was insufficient supervision of the attending physician assistant due to understaffing, and an admission report and treatment plan were missing. As a result, the institution as a whole failed to fulfil its duty to timely seek the necessary medical assistance. The Court finds this extra blameworthy as this is a specialised care institution for emergency psychiatry, to which particularly high demands may be made.
Unique case with strong signal
“It is rare for a care institution to be prosecuted for the death of a patient”, Buijsen says. He, therefore, speaks of a unique case. It is more common for individual doctors to be taken to the disciplinary court, which also happened in this case. “But everyone knows that care can sometimes be flawed in conjunction”, the Health Law Professor argues.
“This ruling, therefore, sends a strong message to other institutions: if we have to, we can go to criminal court, so pay attention”, Buijsen continues. “That is a big deal, because a conviction is disastrous for the good name of a healthcare institution.”
Conditional fine
GGZ Eindhoven was found guilty of wrongful death (Article 51 of the Dutch Penal Code). As a result, a conditional fine of 19,500 euros hangs over the institution’s head. In order not to unnecessarily hit vulnerable care and not to indirectly harm patients, the Court opted for a conditional fine. This fine must only be paid if the institution makes a similar mistake within two years.
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Read the entire article of the Volkskrant here.