The Practical Dilemma And Improvement Paths Of People’s Mediation In Resolving Medical Disputes

People’s mediation is one of the most critical paths to resolving medical disputes.The promulgation and implementation of the Regulations on the Prevention and Treatment of Medical Disputes in 2018 further promoted the widespread application of the people’s mediation system for medical disputes.The Medical Mediation Committee has explored a unique and diverse mediation model.There are mainly the people’s mediation committee model,the insurance company model,the insurance company and the mediation committee model,the arbitration committee model and the for-profit mediation company model.However,in highly specialized medical disputes,the specific application of the people’s mediation system has also encountered various practical difficulties.First of all,the current legislation on medical tort liability is not reasonably set for different types of medical risks.Second,people’s mediators have not fully established the concept of medical risk sharing,let alone guided the parties to disputes,especially the patient parties,to accept the scientific and reasonable concept of medical risk sharing.Furthermore,people’s mediation lacks high regard for the asymmetric distribution of doctor-patient information and cannot effectively bridge the huge knowledge-information gap between doctors and patients.The fundamental institutional reasons that make it difficult for the people’s mediation system to repair the crisis of trust between doctors and patients are that people’s mediators lack the legal right to investigate and collect evidence.The people’s mediation model does not focus on adequate communication between doctors and patients.Medical experts’ substantial degree of involvement is seriously insufficient;the types of medical disputes to which people’s mediation applies lack reasonable restrictions.The medical damage identification system has obvious deficiencies and shortcomings,and the generalization of people’s mediation is profound.These significantly reduce the parties’ trust in the people’s mediation system.In order to effectively deal with the above dilemmas,the following aspects are needed: at first,the concept of people’s mediation of medical disputes should be updated,i.e.,people’s mediators should guide the establishment of mediation concepts such as fair sharing of medical risks,fair distribution of information between doctors and patients,and good establishment of medical technology expectations.Second,a facilitative mediation model should be constructed,supplemented by an evaluative model.In the early stage of mediation,the mediator should mainly communicate with the doctor and the patient individually on a one-to-one basis to improve the current situation of information asymmetry.During the intermediate stage of mediation,the mediator should listen and give feedback to both parties in the dispute and try to meet the communication needs of the physician and the patient.The later stage of mediation needs to focus on the actual demands of both doctors and patients and reasonably distinguish different types of medical risks.Finally,a corresponding sound system should be established.It should further refine the medical risk-sharing system,establish a system for differentiating types of medical disputes,implement a mediator investigation and evidence collection system,optimize the medical expert consultation system,and improve the medical damage identification system.These measures will promote the natural alleviation of doctor-patient conflicts and fundamentally solve the fundamental solution to the doctor-patient crisis.