*** A Big Recognition to Medical Fraternity by recent SUPREME Court Judgement *** NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has held that doctors cannot be unnecessarily harassed by patients or their claimants to extract compensation for death or disability due to alleged medical negligence. A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H S Bedi said on Wednesday that it was the bounden duty of society to ensure that doctors perform their duties without apprehension of malicious prosecution though the interests of the patients should be paramount. The medical practitioners at times also have to be saved from such a class of complainants who use criminal process as a tool for pressurizing the medical professionals/hospitals, particularly private hospitals or clinics, for extracting uncalled for compensation. Such malicious proceedings deserve to be discarded against the medical practitioners, Justices Bhandari writing the judgement said. The apex court made the remarks while dismissing the Rs. 45-lakh compensation claim of Kusum Latha, widow of R K Sharma, Senior Operations Manager in Indian Oil Corporations Marketing Division who, according to the claimants, died due to negligence committed by the doctors of Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre. Sharma died on October 11, 1990, of pyogenic meningitis after doctors at the hospital performed a surgery to remove an encapsulated malignant tumour in the left adrenal on the abdominal side which involved a complicated procedure. Kusum Latha moved the National Consumer Disputes Redredssal Commission (NCDRC) with a plea forRs. 45 lakh compensation charging that the death occurred due to medical negligence. The Commission, after examining various records, dismissed the widows plea, after which she moved the apex court. The apex court too, after perusal of the records and hearing the parties, noted that in the present case Kusum Latha could not establish the charge of negligence. Citing a number of its earlier judgements, the apex court said medical professionals are entitled to protection so long as they perform their duties with reasonable skill and competence and in the interest of patients. The interest and welfare of the patients have to be paramount for medical professionals. Doctors in complicated cases have to take a chance even if the rate of survival is low. The professionals should be held liable for his act or omission but courts, at the same time, have to be extremely careful to ensure that professionals are not unnecessarily harassed and they are able to carry out their professional duties without fear, the apex court said. According to the apex court, the normal human tendency is to pick fault whenever there is a death in the family for which the doctor cannot be made a scapegoat. It is a matter of common knowledge that after some unfortunate event, there is a marked tendency to look for a human factor to blame for an untoward event, a tendency which is closely linked with the desire to punish. Things have gone wrong and, therefore, somebody must be found to answer for it. A professional deserves total protection. The Indian Penal Code has taken care to ensure that people who act in good faith should not be punished. Sections 88, 92 and 370 of the Indian Penal Code give adequate protection to the professional and particularly medical professionals, the bench said. The apex court said to prosecute a medical professional for negligence under criminal law it must be shown that the accused did something or failed to do something which in the given facts and circumstances no medical professional in his ordinary senses and prudence would have done or failed to do. However, it clarified that We should not be understood to have held that doctors can never be prosecuted for medical negligence. As long as the doctors have performed their duties and exercised an ordinary degree of professional skill and competence, they cannot be held guilty of medical negligence. Salute to Doctors. Dr S Anumalla
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 15:06:22 +0000
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