TNMU Professor Delivered a Lecture for the Regional Perinatal Centre Staff

On April 10, 2024, Valentyn Franchuk, Professor of TNMU Department of Pathological Anatomy, Forensic Medicine and Autopsy Course held a meeting with the staff of the Ternopil Regional Clinical Perinatal Centre “Mother and Child”. The meeting was dedicated to the lecture “Medical errors in obstetrics: forensic and criminological aspects”. The event was held with the cycle of scientific and practical meetings with doctors of the Ternopil Region, initiated by the Forensic Medicine Course. At these meetings, clinicians learn about unfavourable types of professional medical activity, the conditions of occurrence, causes and consequences of medical errors, the peculiarities of the shortcomings of medical and diagnostic work for specific medical specialties, and gain knowledge about the responsibility of doctors for errors in the provision of medical care.

Professor Valentyn Franchuk with an introductory speech before the lecture.

Starting his speech, Professor V. Franchuk explained exactly which unfavourable types of clinical diagnostic activity can take place from the point of view of the current legislation, in which cases the doctor may bear disciplinary, administrative, civil or criminal responsibility. The lecturer described in detail the typical shortcomings during the provision of obstetric care, both in the prenatal stage and during childbirth and in the postpartum period, and illustrated these shortcomings with vivid examples from forensic medical expert practice. The listeners were also interested to learn about the professional profile of doctors against whom police investigators most often open criminal proceedings for improper provision of medical care.

Professor V. Franchuk paid special attention to the problem of protecting the practicing doctor from prosecution for possible medical errors and in this connection emphasized the importance of general legal awareness of medical workers. The speaker separately emphasized the need to observe the principles of deontology in clinical work, as one of the main conditions for minimizing the number of complaints from patients. Professor V. Franchuk also drew the attention of those present to the exceptional importance of the correct compilation of medical documentation for the legal protection of the doctor.

The event was chaired by Viktor Ovcharuk, General Director of “Mother and Child” Medical Centre, and with the participation of Tetiana Nebesio, Medical Director of “Mother and Child” Medical Centre, Iryna Hrabchak, Head of the Postpartum Department, Mykola Zhyliaiev, Head of the Department of Extragenital Diseases and Obstetric Pathology, Andrii Kutsenko, Head of the Surgical Gynaecology Department, Mykola Muliar, Head of the Anaesthesiology Department, Pavlo Kashuba, Head of Women’s Consultation, practicing doctors of the Centre and intern doctors.

Viktor Ovcharuk, General Director of “Mother and Child” Ternopil Regional Clinical Perinatal Centre

In the lecture hall of “Mother and Child” Ternopil Regional Clinical Perinatal Centre during the speech of Professor Valentyn Franchuk.

With the doctors of “Mother and Child” Ternopil Regional Clinical Perinatal Centre after the event