Causing Harm in the Healthcare Delivery as the Provision of Services that Do Not Meet Safety Requirements
In the process of law enforcement activities in criminal cases initiated on the fact of improper provision of medical care, a large number of issues arise, most of which are resolved on the basis of general rules for the qualification of crimes and the appointment of penalties for them. The problem of distinguishing between the elements of crimes consisting in causing death or serious harm to health due to improper performance by a person of his professional duties (Part 2 of Art. 109 and Art. 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements, including those that inadvertently caused serious harm to health or death of a person (Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The author has made an attempt to establish criteria for distinguishing these types of crimes in relation to cases of harm in the provision of medical care. The established criteria can have a positive impact on judicial and investigative practice, including ensuring its uniformity in terms of the qualification of crimes. The study included the study of published scientific papers on the problems of criminal liability of medical workers, statistics of medical crime, clarification and comparison of the norms of current legislation, as well as analysis of available materials of criminal cases initiated due to improper provision of medical care. It is established that the main criterion for distinguishing the elements of crimes provided for in Articles 109, 118 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is the characteristic of the object of encroachment. The object of providing services that do not meet safety requirements is the health of the population, which is a public relationship that develops about the correct organization of health care aimed at ensuring the well-being of citizens in an unpersonalized form, therefore, these relations can suffer only with the systemic nature of medical disorders, when there is a threat to the life or health of an indefinite circle of persons.