199 malpractice suits targeted state hospitals since 1995.

TOKYO, Oct. 24 Kyodo

Patients and bereaved family members have filed a total of 199 suits against state-owned hospitals since January 1995, according to  a recent government reply to a parliamentary questionnaire filed by House of Representative member Nobuto Hosaka of the Social Democratic Party.

The annual tally of suits against state hospitals rose every year except 1998.

An official at the Health Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, ''We cannot generalize whether 199 suits in five years, or 40-50 cases per year on average, are a lot.''

''Many state-owned hospitals are advanced medical institutions and offer complex services. Against this backdrop, it is a fact that there is a conspicuous number of accidents recently, and we are taking measures to prevent them,'' the official said.

Since 1995, the ministry has issued warnings following medical malpractice cases on 25 occasions, but 20 of the 25 were issued since January last year, the government reply to Hosaka showed.

State-owned hospitals have around 10% of all the hospital beds available throughout the nation, and the number of suits filed against state-owned hospitals is proportional to that, according to the official.

Last year, there were 48 cases filed against state-owned institutions, or 7.5% of the record 638 cases filed against all hospitals in Japan, according to the Supreme Court.

The reply showed lawsuits against state hospitals totaled 29 in 1995, rising to 30 in 1996 and 36 in 1997, but dropped to 27 in 1998 and rose to 48 in 1999. A total of 29 suits were filed by August this year.

The total of suits filed against all medical institutions in Japan from 1995 through 1999 came to 2,909, and has been rising annually, the Supreme Court said.

Of the 199 suits against state institutions, 53 cases have been settled. Of the 53, the court recognized negligence on the part of the hospitals in two cases, and the state reached negotiated settlements in 25 cases. The remaining cases were either dropped or dismissed, the document showed.

The tally covers state-owned hospitals, hospitals affiliated with national universities and other state-affiliated medical institutions.

In almost all the cases, the state has denied charges of negligence.

In the first of the two cases settled in favor of plaintiffs, the court ruled National Iwakuni Hospital in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, was negligent in overseeing a delivery in a 1995 suit.

In the second, a hospital affiliated with the department of dentistry at Hiroshima University in Hiroshima lost a case filed in 1998 over a botched jaw operation.