VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION

Abstract

The recommendation of the majority of medical experts is regular preventive protection from infectious diseases, primarily through vaccination. However, like any other medical procedure and this entails certain risks, which sometimes can be fatal. In this case, the damaged individual and/or his family members, under certain conditions, may be entitled to compensation. However, when the compensation is claimed by a court, injured parties face a long-lasting judicial proceedings and
expensive process of proving the causal connection between damage in the form of illness or death and received vaccine. Apart from inconvenience to the injured party, these court proceedings often represent negative publicity and a huge financial burden to the defendant, which is why there were delays in the supply of vaccines. Therefore a number of states have designed compensation programmes for serious injury or death due to the side effects of vaccination. The aim of the research is therefore focused on the analysis and recommendation of the programme of compensation for damage due to side effects of vaccination as an alternative dispute resolution opposed
to the long-lasting and expensive civil litigation, except for rationalization of costs and reductions of the workload of the courts. The introduction of a vaccine injury compensation programme in the Republic of Croatia is especially advisable because vaccination is legally mandatory. In other words, although patients in the Republic of
Croatia have general right to an informed consent before a medical intervention, when it comes to preventive vaccination, they have no choice. Furthermore, by forming the body conducting the programme we should remain careful and compile it with professionals from different areas of interest so that they can objectively examine adverse event from all perspectives, without favoring one side.