Medical Personnel Insult to Become Punishable in Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, April 19
Georgian parliament is discussing the amendments, according to which insulting of medical personnel or preventing them from performing their duties will become punishable by law.
The draft was initiated by Akaki Zoidze, Chairman of the Committee of Labor, Healthcare and Social Affairs, together with the Deputy Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Healthcare and Social Affairs, Zaza Bokhua.
The amendments define punishment for actions, such as insulting, disrespecting, threatening or exerting psychological pressure on medical personnel, as well as preventing them to perform their duties or committing violence against them.
The authors of the bill say that the changes are aimed at preventing violence and improving the quality of medical service.
Until now, in the case of violence, the court and the law enforcement agencies discussed the crime according to the criminal law, administrative violations and other relevant laws, but under the new initiative, the additional article will be added to the law which specifically defines cases of violence against medical personnel.
According to the authors of the draft, the initiative is in line with the right of the patient to receive adequate, timely and high-quality medical care, adding psychological or physical impact on medical personnel during the treatment course hinders qualified medical care for the patient.
Akaki Zoidze, Chairman of the Committee of Labor, Healthcare and Social Affairs says such cases when people pressure the medical personnel has become more frequent.
“Depending on the best interests of the patient, the frightened and suppressed doctor cannot properly treat the patient. This is the starting point, and therefore we offer them additional legal guarantees, "he said.
According to last year’s data, there are more than 37,000 certified doctors and 27,800 dentists in the country. Out of the doctors only, more than 24,000 were employed.
However, compared to the doctors, there are twice fewer nurses in Georgia, which is not in line with the European Union countries, where nurses are twice more than doctors.
There are 462 doctors per 100,000 people in Georgia, while in the European countries this number is 327.
