Provision of Dental Care: Certain Aspects of Court Practice Significant for Medical Law

Abstract

Background: In Ukraine, a notable trend is emerging wherein judicial practice plays an increasingly significant role in regulating medical-legal relations. Recently, our attention has been drawn to a court case on compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage resulting from improper medical services provided to a patient in a private dental clinic in Ivano-Frankivsk City. After considering this case, the Supreme Court, the highest court in the judicial system of Ukraine, made a decision that, in our opinion, is a landmark in medical law - a complex branch of law that includes a set of legal norms regulating public relations in the field of medical activity. The purpose of this study is to analyse the court proceedings in a civil case of an action involving a dispute related to the application of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Protection of Consumer Rights’ on compensation for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage in the context of the possibility of its further consideration as a landmark case in medical law and as a judicial precedent which provides for the role of an additional regulator of medical-legal relations and the role of a source of medical law. Methods: In the study, a combination of general scientific and special scientific approaches was used, along with analytical, synthetic, complex and generalisation methods. Results and Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that court practice has the potential to demonstrate flexibility, efficiency, connection with everyday life and rapid adaptation to difficult social circumstances, in particular those related to patient access to quality healthcare. The Supreme Court, based on the circumstances of a particular case, the nature of the disputed legal relationship and the content of the claims, may provide not only a model interpretation of a regulatory prescription that is mandatory for lower courts to take into account when resolving similar cases but also has every reason to serve as a guide for healthcare professionals in the course of their professional activities.