Introduction  –

A Medical negligence in health law refers to breach of duty by healthcare professional resulting in harm to patient due to the negligence. In India, a lot of people know about tort law, which means that every person or organization has legal rights and financial compensation in case of loss. We know the Consumer Act, but this law does not protect all your legal rights. This law comes to you only when you buy any service or product from any company or organization and pay money in return.

Tort law protects and entitles you to damages arising out of any activities of the government. Today our topic is not tort law, but to give detailed information about the right, we told you this. In the medical field, we consider the doctor as God, but after the 1990s in the medical field, this profession is less and works like a profit making corporate firm.

Due to which all the private hospitals have to spend a lot of money to survive and run the entire corporate system. That’s why the ethical values ​​created for the medical field see us falling behind. Many times we feel cheated, no matter how smart we are in our profession, but due to lack of knowledge of the medical field and at some point in our life, we have a relationship with a hospital.

Therefore, here we will tell you in detail about what precautions should be taken by making you aware of the legal point of view of the reality of the medical field.

What is medical negligence? –

• misdiagnosed
• carelessness during operation
• Not giving complete information before operation
  poor patient care
• perform unnecessary operations
• Anesthesia mistake during operation
• unnecessary surgery in female obstetrics
• misdiagnosing disease
• take time to diagnose
• Negligence in treatment by hospital staff
• mistake in long-term therapy

Medical Negligence This is a problem seen in any hospital, government hospital or private hospital, in which people’s lives are at stake. In which we get to see some of the facts given above, for this there is a provision to give justice under the Consumer Act  in India and these matters are seen by the Medical Council under Professional Misconduct.

Such cases are seen in some cases through criminal provisions, but in reality, it is very difficult because these private hospitals are much stronger than normal patients and they know how to control the law and order according to their own. So we see justice being served in very few cases of medical negligence.

Facts of Hospitals –

Medical Profession This is such a profession that leave aside the common man, even an educated person does not even have a simple knowledge about medicine. This is such a profession that there is a risk of life while giving service to the people, so it is the most responsible profession in the world. So we should know what precautions should be taken in this.

Most of the people do not know about law and order in India properly and people like to stay away from this system. We see and experience law and order like the phrase “whose stick is his buffalo”. That’s why most people consider it a mess and seem to live quietly in such a system. In today’s time making profit in a private hospital is the basic objective of most of the hospitals, due to which it has become very important for the patients to keep the information.

Medical needs have needed many times in life from poor to Aamir and due to the wrong arrangement of government hospitals, people prefer to get treatment in private hospitals. But the basic problem is that very few people in India can easily cover the expenses incurred in a private hospital. Still, we get to see such experiences in private hospitals and government hospitals, on which we do not want to raise our voice.

Legal Provisions for Medical Field –

Major provisions have been made in the Indian Penal Code for medical negligence, under which criminal cases can be registered. Medical Council has been mandated under the Medical Council Act 1956, through which we can register complaints in cases of any medical negligence.

Under the Customer Protection Act, we can register our complaint very easily and in cost. All the legal arrangements have been made by the Government of India for medical protection, only it is necessary for the people to be aware of it and to know about this process. But in India people have more fear than faith in law and order, due to which they do not register such cases.

Because of this, there are negligent in private and government hospitals, then they know that no person is going to take any action against us and such cases are settled many times with the power of money by creating pressure at the personal level. Due to which we get to see such negligence done by the hospital staff very easily, in which there is no fear.

Precautions to Deal with Hospitals –

• While admitting your patient in any hospital, definitely take the rays of two or three experts and take the right decision from the discrepancy which you see with the advice of these people.
• At any time, if there is any negligence in the treatment, the law is not in your hands or any such illegal act which will affect the justice to be given in the future.
• Keep all the paperwork in any hospital from the admission of your patient to release from the hospital as a whole, so that if there is any negligence then it can be beneficial.
• Under all the means given above, you can get your justice, for which there is no need for any reputed person.
  As much as we spend money for the hospital, taking legal advice for caution for important operations has become very important in today’s era.
• At the time of Corona, many people had to go through a bad experience, so while filling their patient in any hospital, ask for all the things in a paper document from the hospital so that there is no problem later.
• Through the Medical Council, by filing a criminal case, Customer Protection Act, we can get justice for us.

Who is the Victim? –

Generally, one who is weak in the eyes of law is considered a victim in any case. We get to see violent attacks on many doctors and hospital staff in the medical field, which we see a lot on television channels. Such incidents should not happen, this is absolutely correct, but when trust in any system of the society is lost, then the society becomes violent. The society is called so.

The people of the patient who come to the hospital are very upset mentally, they are worried about how much it will cost financially, but if they get to see the insensitive hospital staff, then in some circumstances usually violent incidents are seen. We have to understand this from the root and if we treat the people coming to the hospital with compassion, then this problem can end.

That’s why we can say that most of the time we get to see that the victims are relatives of the patient and in some circumstances violent incidents happen due to misconception or money from the hospital, the evidence of which is very negligible. Therefore, whether it is a government hospital or a private hospital, there should be strict rules by the government for how to deal with the people coming to the hospital, which will reduce such accidents.

Duty towards Patients of Hospitals & Staff –

• In any hospital or clinic, it is binding on the patient to provide services to the patient under the rules prescribed by the medical authority.
• If the condition of a patient is very complex, then it is binding on the doctors and staff to give first priority to such cases.
• It is mandatory for any hospital or doctors explain the real condition of any patient, neither more nor less should give truthful information about the situation.
• Giving proper treatment for any disease is binding and what this proper treatment would be has been explained by the Supreme Court in many cases.
• Keeping secrecy about the patient’s illness is binding on any hospital and doctors, if that disease can spread infection in the society, only in these cases that information is made public.
• In an emergency, any professional doctor can treat any patient, but if that doctor wants to leave that treatment, then it is obligatory to inform the relatives of the patient.
• The prescription about the medicine given by the hospital or the doctor should not be restricted.
• For any treatment, complete written information should be kept about the treatment to be done with the patient and the patient’s relatives should be aware of this.

How to prove Medical Negligence in court –

• First of all, you have to prove the relationship of doctor and patient on the basis of paper documents.
• There should be evidence that your doctor has violated the legal process prescribed for the medical profession.
• Your patient has died due to medical negligence or you have been physically injured due to the wrong treatment.
• It is important for you to have a paper document of the damage caused by medical negligence.
• For any medical negligence, it is necessary to file the complaint at the right time, the more time we take to file
• The complaint, the more it will result in documentary evidence and create difficulties in getting justice.
• We can use technology on evidence, but it should not be misused, it has to be kept in mind.
• Add the report of expert doctors to the document of your complaint.
• Make a party to the hospital and all the staff who are involved in the treatment of your patient.
• According to your mental problem and the social and economic loss, decide the amount of damage.

Medical Negligence & Consumer Protection Act  –

The Consumer Protection Act was introduced in 1986, which initially included only services of goods, but later with the advent of the information technology sector, services were also included in this law. There was a debate for many days on the matters of medical negligence whether the matter related to the medical field should be taken up in the consumer forum because this matter is very complicated and for this the opinion of expert people is very important.

For this, many petitions were filed in the Supreme Court. Which were both in opposition and in support. In 1995, a case came up in the Supreme Court, Indian Medical Association against Vishanta, in which all the explanations were clarified. The stand was taken by the IMA that if the Medical Council has its own process of professional misconduct, then what is the point of starting another process separately.

In this case by the Supreme Court, it was said that consumer law is a facility of additional justice to the customers, so that the safety of the customer will be protected in a more robust manner. In the cases of IMA, only the doctor is punished, there is no benefit for the customers. Customer Protection Act Under this law, justice is delivered very quickly and the amount of damage is determined quite accurately.

Conclusion –

After 1990, the evidence of profit making private hospitals has increased significantly in India and due to this, we get to see a large amount of exploitation of the common people for money. Because the medical sector is working like a Corporate, it is necessary to make more rules and restrictions on it in a developing country like India. We cannot give a free hand to private hospitals to make profits like in the US.

In India, the income of most people is usually a lot of work and due to poor services of government hospitals, if such people take treatment in private hospital, then they can end that family financially for the whole life. Therefore, some rules in India must be different from Europe. It is necessary to keep the more budget in the matters of health by the government.

Due to more information about their legal rights in the people, they become victims of exploitation of such private and government hospitals. That’s why we need to have basic knowledge about it. It will be very important to consult two or three experts when admitted to any hospital because it is very difficult to identify who is right and who is wrong in the medical field. Keeping a written document of the winning process during treatment is very important for justice for the relatives of the patient.

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