In the context of healthcare workers' civil liability, evaluation of medical malpractice cases concluded at Turkish council of state between 2015-2021

Medical malpractice is one of the biggest causes of concern for many healthcare professionals worldwide. Studies show that medical malpractice anxiety is an important factor in choosing a specialty and field of study in medicine and that healthcare professionals working in departments with a high risk of medical malpractice perform defensive medicine more frequently. In our study, by searching through the official decision search site of the Council of State, 601 medical malpractice case files decided by the Council of State between 2015 and 2021 were accessed. When we analyzed the data; it was observed that the highest number of case files was in 2021. It was observed that the average time between the date of the incident and the time the case was submitted to the Council of State was 9.2 years, which is well above the target time for the completion of the case in the judiciary. When we examined the fields of health application (branches) subject to complaints, it was observed that gynecology and obstetrics (24.3%), emergency medicine (15.4%) and general surgery (11.2%) took the first three places respectively. The most important indicator of the decreasing preference of these branches by physicians is their decreasing scores and vacant quotas in the Medical Specialization Exams. The health service provider with the highest number of medical malpractice complaints was found to be State Hospitals (44.3%). State Hospitals were followed by Education and Research Hospitals with 21.4% and university hospitals with 19%. When the cases in which the Council of State reversed the decision were analyzed, it was observed that the most frequent reversal decision was the deficiencies / inadequacies in the expert report. When we evaluated the institutions from which expert reports were requested, we found that 80.6% of all reports were issued by the The Ministry of Justice, Council of Forensic Medicine. Despite the fact that most forensic medicine experts are employed at universities and many of these universities have highly successful academics in other branches, we have seen that courts tend to request expert reports from the Council of Forensic Medicine. In order to make efficient use of academically trained manpower, the number of expert reports requested by the courts from universities should be increased.