Patrimonial responsibility of the State for faulty operation of the sanitary service

The patrimonial responsibility of the State is configured, in cases where the faulty operation of the equipment and facilities used to provide the public health service causes damage or injury to patients or users. In Spain, the jurisprudential development has been diverse in relation to the State's condemnation of the faulty operation of the health service. In this sense, there are paradigmatic judgments issued by the Contentious Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, dated April 2, 1985, for the damage caused by the fall of an elevator in a State hospital. Other judgments referring to malfunction are: those issued by the Contentious Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, dated January 3, 1990; dated October 4, 1999; dated February 5, 2007 and dated March 21, 2007. These sentences for the malfunctioning of the health service are due to the deaths of patients due to ingesting toxic products, suicide of patients with psychiatric problems, drowning of patients suffering from delusional psychosis, leaving the patient alone after surgery, among others. In the case of the Dominican Republic, there are still few sentences condemning the State for faulty operation of the public health service. This situation is due in some cases, to ignorance of their rights and duties as users established in the Constitution, Law No. 42-01 General Health, the General Regulations of Hospitals in the Dominican Republic, instituted by Decree No. 351 -99 and Law No. 358-05 on the Protection of the Rights of the Consumer or User. Other reasons that have limited the filing of claims on patrimonial liability against the State, has to do with the difficulty that people who have received damage or injury, as well as their family members have to prove in certain cases that their injury has been caused by negligence or medical malpractice. In summary, despite the obstacles to sue the State in patrimonial responsibility and prove medical malpractice, we must be optimistic and continue to contribute from the academy and the different modalities that technology offers us, in order to build and consolidate a culture of demanding respect for the rights and guarantees set forth in the Constitution, international treaties and adjective laws.