International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2020, 9, 1567-1572 1567 E-ISSN: 1929-4409/20 © 2020 Lifescience Global Tort Liability of Medical Workers in the Patient Safety System in Ukraine and the World Inna V. Horislavska 1,* , Dariia O. Marits 2 , Oleksii Yu. Piddubnyi 1 , Daryna M. Shatkovska 3 and Yaroslav M. Shatkovskiy 4 1 Department of Civil and Commercial Law, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine 2 Department of Public Law, National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kyiv, Ukraine 3 Department of Regulatory and Methodological Support, Registers and Control, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine 4 Department of Administrative and Commercial Law, Zaporizhzhia National University, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine Abstract: Health 2020: European health and well-being policy. It focuses on supporting the actions of governments and society in the direction of significantly improving the health and well-being of the population; reducing the level of inequality in receiving medical services; promoting the health of everyone; ensuring that the health care system is "human-centred". The position of the World Health Organization is unequivocal – "the most important general health issue internationally" is patient safety (an integral component of service quality). It was proven that the reduction in the number of medical errors and similar health-related situations is the result of the integration and coordination of services through the participation of patients and consumers of medical services. The purpose of the paper is to investigate and compare the features of tort liability of medical workers under the legislation of Ukraine and the standards of the World Health Organisation. Our research is based on such methods as comparative legal method, method of analysis, formal legal method, as well as bibliographic method. Semasiology of the concept of "tort liability" for health professionals in Ukraine has differences in comparison with the WHO standards. Accordingly, the level of patient safety in Ukraine is such that needs to be improved to meet international standards. Keywords: Tort liability, medical workers, patient safety system. INTRODUCTION The Constitution of Ukraine defines human life and health as the highest social value and guarantees everyone the right to health care and medical assistance, and the state creates conditions for effective and accessible medical care for all citizens (Article 49) (Constitution of Ukraine 1996). However, in practice, patients often remain quite vulnerable, and their main benefit – life and health – is at stake due to imperfect legislation, medical errors, and objective circumstances – as is the case for internally displaced persons within Ukraine. As of September 2, 2019, according to the Unified Information Database on Internally Displaced Persons, 1,405,184 migrants from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetska and Luhanska Oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have been registered (Internally displaced persons 2019). Proper legal regulation of tort liability and compensation for medical malpractice to protect the *Address correspondence to this author at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Tel: 044 527 8242; E-mail: horislavska.iv@tanu.pro violated rights of the patient is an appropriate guarantee of the patient's confidence that in case of harm to their life and health, they will either be restored (because such benefits as life and health cannot be restored in kind), or the damages will be reimbursed and the perpetrators will be brought to justice. At the current stage of development of Ukrainian society and medical and legal science, tort liability comes to the fore concerning the responsibility of medical workers. According to the Civil Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the CC of Ukraine) there is a possibility to bring the medical worker to responsibility without the proved fact of commission of a crime, in particular these are Articles 1166-1168, 1172 of the CC of Ukraine (The Civil Code of Ukraine 2003). The main feature of the liability of medical workers in Ukraine lies in the lack of legislative definition of the concept of medical error (malpractice). The international medical and legal community is working to create the safest healthcare systems so as to reduce the likelihood of medical errors and to reduce their impact on both patients and healthcare professionals (Kohn, Corrigan and Donaldson 2000, Cook and Woods 1994, Grober and Bohnen 2005).