Compensation for medical errors increases.
There has been a strong upward trend, particularly in the last two to three years, in the compensation awarded by the courts to patients who have suffered damage to their health or to the relatives of patients who have died as a result of errors or omissions by doctors.
As market executives explain to Insurance World, the compensation paid by insurance companies is not only higher in terms of value per incident, but also more frequent, as more and more cases of medical errors reach the courtrooms.

In particular, they point out that advances in technology in the field of medicine allow patients and lawyers to more easily and efficiently search for the causes that caused a medical error or omission and then go to court seeking compensation. Most notable are the cases of obstetricians who, as we shall see below, are involved in most of the cases that reach the courts, but also in the highest compensation payments.
Another reason why the damages awarded by the courts have increased has to do with the better information available to Greeks, which allows them to claim their rights more easily.For their part, insurance companies, with their expertise and experience, are called upon to manage the risk they take on more rationally, covering the doctors' civil liability in this way as well:
- to price the risk more correctly
- decide which risks they will and will not cover, and
- to deal more effectively with the events to be indemnified.
But before we look at exactly how the compensation awarded by the courts has evolved in recent years, let us take a quick look at a list of indicators to see what the current situation in the health sector in Greece is.
In the market under consideration, then, there are approximately 180 000 people working in the sector who come into direct contact with patients and 210 000 people who have an indirect relationship with the sector.
Around 85 000 enterprises are active in the health sector, of which 19 000 provide direct services, and Greece appears to have the largest number of doctors in the OECD in terms of population.
Greece has 5.4 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants and is first in a total of 31 countries, with Belgium second, with 4 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, and Switzerland third with 3.9. This is followed by large markets such as France, which has 3.4 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, Germany with 3.5 doctors, Italy and Spain with 3.7 doctors.

In total, more than 67,000 doctors are employed in our country.

As far as the activity of the insurance market is concerned, on an annual basis, the sector generates premiums from the civil liability of doctors in the order of EUR 11 million, which is extremely low compared to other major national markets, where every new doctor takes it for granted that he will have an insurance policy covering him for the risk of civil liability when he starts his activity.
The importance of liability cover for a doctor can be seen from the survey data carried out by the University of Piraeus and recently presented to the sales network of a major insurance company.
These data show that the average compensation awarded per specialty is very high. It is characteristic that the survey data, which 'looks' over a ten-year period, shows that gynaecologists and obstetricians are liable for an average compensation of EUR 623 000 (!), the highest in their market. Neurosurgeons are also very high in terms of compensation awarded, with an average of EUR 460 000, as are microbiologists with EUR 391 000.The three lowest ranks in the table are ear, nose and throat specialists with around EUR 117,000, cardiologists with around EUR 171,000 and plastic surgeons with around EUR 172,000.
Interestingly, however, the same survey also shows how compensation is distributed and for which cases the courts award the highest amounts.In particular, deaths include the most cases of compensation (36.93%), followed by cases of permanent disability with 35.89%, temporary injury for which medical intervention is necessary with 14.63%, temporary injury for which hospitalisation is deemed necessary with 4, 53%, incidents for which medical intervention is necessary to keep the patient alive with 2.44% and other medical incidents which account for 5.57% of the number of incidents for which compensation is awarded.
Also, the highest average compensation awarded is recorded as the amount of €434,086, paid for death cases. This is followed by cases of permanent disability with an average compensation of EUR 356,839, various other cases with an average compensation of EUR 193,800, temporary injury for which hospitalisation is deemed necessary with an average compensation of EUR 82,027 and cases requiring medical intervention to keep the patient alive with an average compensation of EUR 36,810. Finally, cases where temporary damage is recorded and medical intervention is deemed necessary, for which the average compensation is in the order of EUR 36 449.

But how much do medical malpractice liability policies provided by insurance companies currently cost and what do they provide?
Market data shows that the majority of insurance companies have set their annual premiums for a risk of €1 million, without deductible, between €1,900 and €3,000. These are premiums which relate to obstetricians, the professionals who, as mentioned above, have the highest indemnity incidents. For surgeons, the corresponding amounts are between EUR 1 400 and EUR 3 000, and similarly for anaesthetists, while for dentists the premiums are at much lower levels, starting from EUR 750 and rising again to EUR 3 000.
The benefits provided by the companies include, among other things, court costs and lawyers' fees for civil and criminal proceedings (coverage varies from company to company), as well as the payment of compensation, which is often covered without the case necessarily having to go to court (out of court) and relates to incidents that may arise while the insurance policy is in force or even after one or two years after its expiry (depending on the premium chosen by the doctor).

And of course, the indemnities also cover the risk of loss of life and bodily injury due to errors or omissions caused by negligence and related exclusively to the exercise of the medical profession, as well as accidents that may occur on the premises for which the doctor is responsible.