Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Delhi Consumer Commission on Wednesday came down heavily on the country's premier medical institute, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in a case of medical negligence.
AIIMS has been asked to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to Ayesha Begum, a resident of Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, for causing depression and permanent disfigurement to her.
One of the doctors at the hospital had surgically removed one of Ayesha's breasts after wrongly diagnosing that it was affected by cancer.
So is the rule of the law strong enough to defend the right to life? That was the topic of discussion on the CNN-IBN special show India 360 on Wednesday.
To debate the issue, on the panel of experts, were President of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Ajay Kumar; and legal cell advisor of the Association of Medical Consultants, Dr Lalit Kapoor.
Long Wait For Compensation
In the context of the shocking case of medical negligence by AIIMS, the cause for concern along with the damage caused to the patient is that compensation has come in only after five years of the case coming to light.
“The sad part is why did it take so long for the victim to get the compensation? The original purpose of the Consumer Protection Act was that the issue should be resolved in 90 days. Yet, most of the cases in Mumbai have taken four-five years. Now this is a failure of the judicial system,” said Dr Kapoor.
Doctors, however, argue that medical negligence cannot be equated to criminal negligence because there is never any real intent to harm the patient. But what about gross negligence that could result in death?
“According to what I have read in the newspapers, the court has also ruled that it is not a case of medical negligence, it is a case of misjudgment. But misadventures due to misjudgment do happen though it is unfortunate. So AIIMS should learn from it. It was not just one or two doctors, it was a chain of systems. The doctor probably relied on the pathological test. But it is not defendable for sure,” said Dr Ajay Kumar.
However, it is true there a lot of gray areas when it comes to medical negligence, but do the laws need to be stricter on the subject?
“The one mistake we make is to mix up criminal and civil negligence. We are talking about a consumer court so where does criminal negligence come in? There are separate criminal courts for that. Here, the question is of being compensated for damage that occurred. I feel there should be a mechanism where the patients, doctors and maybe the consumer activists and some retired judges should settle the matter,” said Dr Kapoor.
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