A court ruling in the Northern Marianas that provisions of the Government Liability Act are unconstitutional has prompted the Commonwealth Health Centre to stop all non-emergency surgery.
Esther Muña Photo: Supplied
The Government Liability Act is a statute that allows the CNMI government to indemnify victims of malpractice suits by the Center's doctors.
The chief executive of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, Esther Muña, said the territory's only hospital stopped performing non-emergency surgical procedures earlier this month..
She said the corporation would not authorise such procedures until the court finding is overturned.
The Government Liability Act was found unconstitutional in a continuing case involving a woman who claims a surgical team left a 15-centimeter surgical clamp in her abdomen during a surgery in August 2000.
She is suing two former Commonwealth Health Center doctors for malpractice.
