The lawyer spoke about the expansion of the area of responsibility of doctors in emergency situations

The new professional standard for doctors, approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor, indirectly expands the area of responsibility for doctors in emergency situations. Ilya Rusyaev, a lawyer and founder of the Rusyaev Club business community, told Izvestia about this on February 11.

According to the expert, for the first time, a separate labor function is fixed in the standard: the organization and provision of medical care in case of emergency, including medical evacuation.

"Seven specific labor actions are prescribed within this function: medical triage, prioritization of assistance, assessment of an event according to emergency criteria, coordination as the senior arriving team, interaction with emergency services, organization of a sorting area and justification for choosing medical organizations for evacuation. The standard will enter into force on September 1, 2026," he said.

According to Rusyaev, from a legal point of view, the professional standard remains an instrument of labor law. It describes job functions, qualifications and knowledge requirements, and the employer uses it to update job descriptions, training programs, and admission criteria.

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At the same time, as the lawyer notes, the professional standard does not establish new types of responsibility. However, it indirectly expands the risk zone.: It specifies the scope of a doctor's duties in an emergency, including coordination and information exchange, which means that in the case of proceedings it provides a guideline for assessing whether the duties were performed properly.

"According to art. 124 of the Criminal Code, a doctor faces responsibility for not providing care to a patient without valid reasons, according to Articles 109 and 118 of the Criminal Code, it is possible to be involved in causing death or serious harm by negligence in case of gross violation of algorithms. Art. 125 of the Criminal Code on leaving in danger is used less often, and art. 293 of the Criminal Code on negligence is addressed more to the leaders," Rusyaev said.

In the labor field, the employer has the right to apply penalties, up to dismissal, if the duties are fixed in the job description. Civil liability to victims, as a rule, falls on the medical organization with possible recourse to the employee, the specialist added.

At the same time, as the lawyer noted, in emergency situations, medicine works according to the principles of phasing and sorting, where a shortage of time and resources is the norm. Therefore, when reviewing incidents, the central question will be whether the doctor acted within the established algorithms and real capabilities on the spot or allowed unjustified inaction.

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Earlier in the day, Sergei Leonov, head of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, said that emergency doctors, according to the new professional standard, would be able to provide the necessary care outside a medical organization in cases of an emergency. In addition, he noted that now the medical worker must justify the choice of a specific medical organization for the evacuation of the patient.

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