Organizational and legal problems of recognizing an event as an insured event and paying the insured amount to employees of the forensic medical examination bureau as a result of infection with a new coronavirus infection

The World Health Organization has repeatedly documented the need to protect healthcare workers, and the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 infection has demonstrated the importance of staff in healthcare organizations during emergencies.

Owing to their professional duties, employees of the forensic medical examination bureau conduct autopsies of the dead, collect biological material for research, and examine victims, accused individuals, and other persons in accordance with the directions and decisions of law enforcement agencies. During work, it is not always possible to determine whether the personnel of a medical organization had contact with infected persons or materials. In this regard, many countries, including Russia, have prepared additional measures, such as additional payments, to protect healthcare personnel. Norms have been developed and implemented to ensure payments in case of infection of employees of medical organizations. This issue is critical in the event of the death of an employee, because of the fact that the family of the deceased may not receive payments if the connection between the death of the employee and his professional activity is not established.

To illustrate the point, this article presents a case of a claim for a lump sum from the wife of a forensic medical expert who, shortly before his death, in the course of his official duties, had examined the corpse of a woman who had died of chronic heart failure exacerbated by a severe viral infection in the emergency room of a central district hospital. The regional department of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, the Centre for Occupational Pathology, and the forensic medical examination bureau did not consider the outcome of the expert’s illness as occupational. However, the court, having studied the case materials in the context of the current legislative framework, declared the conclusion of the medical commissions invalid and established that the medical worker’s death was caused by infection with a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the performance of his labor duties.