A new system to investigate "unexpected deaths" of patients at medical institutions — a product of more than 10 years of discussions involving victims of medical accidents and their families, doctors and lawyers — will be launched in October. The system is aimed at improving the safety and quality of medical services by exploring the causes of medical accidents, and the results of the probe will not be reported to the police or public prosecutors. It is important for medical workers, patients and people at large to understand the purpose of the system and make efforts to improve it through its operation.

The system is based on a revision to the Medical Service Law enacted in June last year. It will cover some 180,000 medical institutions, including hospitals, clinics, maternity homes and dental clinics. The institutions will report all unexpected deaths that happened during medical examinations and treatments to third-party organizations known as medical accidents investigation and support centers, which will be designated by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The ministry estimates that 1,300 to 2,000 such deaths are occurring every year across the country. According to the Supreme Court, the number of lawsuits related to medical accidents began to increase in the 1990s, hitting a peak of more than 1,100 cases in 2004. In recent years, 700 to 800 suits are being filed every year against doctors and medical institutions.

Under the new system, if unexpected deaths have occurred, hospitals and clinics have to explain to the patients' families and then report them to the third-party organizations. The medical institutions will then immediately start their own probe into the deaths and report the outcome to the bereaved families and the third-party organizations. The latter will collect and analyze investigation results from various medical institutions, and use the findings to enlighten doctors and medical institutions and to make proposal to prevent similar deaths in the future. These probes will be separate from any possible criminal procedures or damage suits related to the medical accidents.