Health and Medical Law

The formal name of the health and medical law is the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services. Rather than punishing medical acts directly, it operates as a framework statute that sets out the roles and responsibilities of medical personnel and medical institutions along with the duties of the State.

In medical disputes, administrative dispositions, and medical accident litigation, the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services is applied in the following ways.

• As a standard for interpreting the duty of care and ethical obligations of medical personnel
• As a standard for assessing whether a refusal of treatment or a patient transfer was legitimate
• As the governing statute for the duty to report and cooperate in matters of public health
• As a source of the basic principles for determining whether a patient's rights have been infringed

Article 5 of the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services sets out in detail the basic professional ethics and legal responsibilities that health and medical personnel must observe.

The Framework Act on Health and Medical Services sets out the rights of citizens as patients, but in practice it operates as the benchmark for a medical institution's duty to explain, its handling of information, and its consent procedures.

• Protection of the right to health, which translates into a rule against discrimination in access to care
• Right to know, which gives rise to the obligation to permit inspection of medical records and to provide copies
• Right to self-determination, which strengthens the duty to explain and the consent process
• Confidentiality of medical information, which imposes responsibility for protecting personal data and managing records

In short, the provisions on patient rights define the scope of a medical institution's legal management obligations.

A violation of the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services often functions less as a freestanding offense than as a starting point that can broaden into a violation of the Medical Service Act, a violation of the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, and civil or criminal liability for medical negligence.

For that reason, a medical institution should treat the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services as an operating principle and as a baseline law for managing risk.