News**: Justice.com
Editor: The Procuratorate of Weihai Torch High-tech Industrial Development Zone invited experts in the fields of medical and legal science to participate in the hearings to solve professional and difficult problems and ensure the quality of cases.
[Basic Facts of the Case].
On September 1, 2021, Jiang Mouhui went to suspect Jiang for acupuncture due to waist discomfort. After acupuncture, Jiang asked Jiang to do a squatting movement to see the effect. Jiang Mouhui felt unwell after squatting up several times, Jiang called 120 emergency **, and Jiang Mouhui died after rescue efforts. After judicial appraisal, Jiang Mouhui died of acute respiratory and circulatory dysfunction caused by pulmonary artery thromboembolism. The investigating agency believes that the criminal suspect Jiang Mouhui, knowing that his rural doctor's practice certificate was withdrawn and he could not practice medicine, still used acupuncture at home to cause the victim Jiang Mouhui's ** back pain, and was suspected of illegally practicing medicine.
On March 30, 2023, the Procuratorate of Weihai Torch High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Shandong Province, did not prosecute Jiang due to unclear facts and insufficient evidence. Although it was handled as doubtful and not prosecuted, the suspect was at fault for the victim's death, so Jiang paid 150,000 yuan in compensation.
[Procuratorial performance of duties].
Identify differences in the case and prepare for hearings. The parties had a large dispute over the nature of the case and the amount of compensation, and they were still unable to reach a settlement after many communications. There are two points of controversy in this case, one is whether Jiang is a "person who has not obtained the qualification to practice as a doctor" as stipulated in the crime of illegal medical practice. The subject of the crime of illegal practice of medicine refers to a person who has not obtained a doctor's license. In this case, Jiang obtained the qualification of a rural doctor and obtained a practice certificate through the study and examination organized by the relevant departments, and served as a rural doctor from January 1982. After reaching the age of 60, the relevant regulatory authorities took away his practice certificate on the grounds of renewing his certificate, but there is no direct evidence to prove that the regulatory department clearly informed Jiang that his certificate would be cancelled and that he could not continue to practice. The second controversy is the proportion of responsibility for the victim's death caused by Jiang's diagnosis and treatment. As for the cause of the victim's death, it was determined that there was no causal relationship between thrombosis and acupuncture, and multiple squatting activities after acupuncture were the triggers for pulmonary artery thromboembolism. The proportion of the responsibility of the inducement to the outcome of the death is very important to the determination of sentencing, compensation, etc. in this case, and the appraisal agency cannot give a clear answer.
Make full use of the "external brain" to improve the quality of hearings. Procuratorial organs give full play to the role of hearings in handling cases, inviting experts in the fields of medicine and law to participate in hearings to resolve difficult professional issues. On December 16, 2022, the procuratorate invited well-known local acupuncture experts, cardiovascular experts, and specially invited assistant prosecutors, forensic doctors, lawyers, etc., to participate in a public hearing to hear opinions on whether Jiang was a "person who has not obtained a doctor's license" as stipulated in the crime of illegal practice of medicine, whether the diagnosis and treatment violated relevant technical operation norms, and the proportion of responsibility for the victim's death. On March 22, 2023, focusing on the issue of legal characterization, the procuratorate invited professors from the Law School of Shandong University and people's supervisors with professional legal knowledge to conduct a second hearing to hear opinions on whether Jiang's conduct constituted a crime and the legal characterization of Jiang's conduct, and to answer questions from the victim's family on the spot.
A decision is to be made in accordance with law based on the hearing opinions. In the first hearing, the experts at the meeting agreed that the inspection method of squatting did not violate any regulations or operating procedures, and there was no operational fault; Jiang did not diagnose the victim's thrombosis, and there was a misdiagnosis, but patients with deep vein thrombosis may develop pulmonary embolism at any time, so it is impossible to give a clear conclusion on the proportion of responsibility; The dispute over Jiang's identity and qualifications should be determined by the relevant departments. In the second hearing, the experts at the meeting said that the available evidence could not determine the proportion of responsibility for the victim's death caused by Jiang's actions; Nor was there a consensus on the question of practising qualifications. Although no definitive conclusion was reached on the key issues in dispute, the parties saw the efforts made by the procuratorate to ascertain the facts, eliminated prejudice, and gained a more rational understanding of the process and basis for handling the case. On March 30, 2023, based on the two hearings, in view of the fact that a clear conclusion could not be reached on the issue of whether Jiang had practice qualifications and the proportion of inducements, the procuratorate handled Jiang as doubtful and not prosecuted on the grounds that the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient, and both parties agreed.
[Typical significance].
expert argumentation + people's supervisor supervision", and multiple parties ensure the quality of the case. In the process of handling medical, environmental protection and other types of cases, difficult and controversial issues such as the determination of facts and the application of law are often involved. People's supervisors, procuratorial hearing officers, and specially invited assistant procurators with specialized knowledge are to provide expert opinions, which are an important basis for procuratorial organs to handle cases, effectively making up for the lack of professional knowledge of procurators. In this case, the way of carefully listening to the experts' arguments and opinions and taking the initiative to accept supervision shows that the procuratorial organs are not only rigorous and standardized in handling cases in accordance with the law, but also able to respond to the concerns of the masses, taking the public's cognition and the most simple values as the value considerations of handling cases, and truly making the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
procuratorial hearing + people's mediation", to better achieve "double resolution of the matter". The significance of the hearing is not to form a unified opinion, nor to simply answer questions and solve doubts, but to enable both parties to enhance their trust in the procuratorate, and ultimately achieve "double understanding". Medical experts answered medical professional questions, legal experts analyzed the case, answered relevant legal questions, etc., and the hearing officer, who has many years of mediation experience, gave full play to their own advantages to persuade the victim's family to look at the compensation matter rationally, and successfully facilitated the two parties to reach an agreement on the amount of compensation, laying a solid foundation for the smooth handling of the case. The neutral third-party identity allows the parties to open their hearts and maximize the value of the procuratorial hearing.
From "case files" to "outside cases", effectively improve the efficiency of social governance. Dig deep into the loopholes in social governance reflected behind the case, promptly formulate and issue procuratorial suggestions to relevant departments, and urge rectification, so as to achieve "handling one case and governing one piece". In response to the loopholes found in the management of rural doctors, the procuratorial organs issued procuratorial recommendations on social governance to relevant departments, requiring that the supervision of rural doctors' practice be strengthened. After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the relevant competent departments issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening and Standardizing the Practice Management of Rural Doctors" and other documents, comprehensively investigated 1,197 village clinics in the city, re-publicized 389 rural doctors, and carried out normalized supervision, inspection, publicity and education, and eliminated the hidden dangers of illegal medical practice.