[Prevention and control of infectious diseases from a disciplinary-law perspective]

To gain insight into the importance for medical disciplinary courts of the collective health interest in the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Descriptive retrospective study.

The electronic databases of the Dutch government gazette (Staatscourant) and the Netherlands' medical disciplinary courts were searched for disciplinary court rulings on actions and negligence in the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

We found 67 verdicts relevant to our subject in the period 1995-2013. Of these 67 disciplinary hearings, 12 were filed by the Netherlands' health inspectorate, 29 by the patient and 26 by a representative or next of kin. The defendants included 31 medical specialists, 12 dentists and 11 general practitioners. The disciplinary tribunal imposed measures in 23 cases, including 5 suspensions.

In the case of serious infectious diseases the disciplinary courts decide that the caregiver also has to take into account the interests of other parties than caregiver and the patient. Medical microbiologists in hospitals should even go so far as to surrender their responsibility for general patient safety, if they are unable to comply with the applicable medical guideline. It is also striking that in questions of vaccination the disciplinary court judge is inclined to put a child's health interests before parental authority. One final striking point is that the health inspectorate plays an important role as complainant in disciplinary cases concerning prevention of infection.