A Supreme Court’s recent verdict awarding Rs. 5.96 crore to a doctor from Kolkata whose wife Anuradha Saha had died in 1998 due to medical negligence remains the highest ever compensation being given for medical negligence.
The apex court issued the directive after enhancing the compensation of Rs. 1.73 crore awarded by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to the doctor.
The consumer forums have become the most easy and most accessible redressal mechanism for the victims of the medical negligence cases. A slew of medical negligence cases had been decided by the Ernakulam District Consumer Redressal Forum. As many as 59 cases were decided right from 2009 to 2012 and a total compensation of Rs. 2.crore was awarded in such cases.
A. Rajesh, the president of Ernakulam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, says that negligence, as per the law of Torts, was a breach of legal duty to take care, resulting in damage to the person claiming it. The medical negligence laws postulated that to commit error was human, but mistakes of medical professionals leading to the death of a person or causing permanent impairment to patients could be particularly costly and could not be overlooked. Mistakes might occur. If it occurs from carelessness and negligence, that could not be let off.
It was the Supreme Court which had brought the medical professionals within the ambit of “service” as defined in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 in the landmark Indian Medical Association vs. V.P. Shantha case.
Mr. Rajesh said that earlier, only persons who were treated at private and cooperative hospitals could only be entitled to compensation on medical negligence grounds. The government doctors had been exempted since patients were getting free treatment at government hospitals. However, he pointed out that in a recent judgment passed in 2014, the Supreme Court had indicated that even the government hospital doctors could be proceeded against for negligence as the State government had been contributing its share for treatment of these patients.
He also said that even aggrieved patients could either file petition for compensation before sub-courts or before the consumer forums. Earlier, when such complaints were received, the consumer forums had to seek the opinion of a team of doctors in line with a Supreme Court directive in the Martin F D’ Souza Vs . Mohammed Isfaq case. But the apex court reversed this ruling and held in Kishan Rao Vs.Nikil Super Specialty Hospital case that expert evidence was not required and consumer forums could decided such compensation cases based on the evidence before them.
According to Mr. Rajesh, before registering criminal cases against doctors, it had been mandated that an expert opinion from a team of doctors should be obtained.
