Bengaluru: Medical negligence cases filed with the Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (KSCDRC) have witnessed sluggish progress over the past year due to various reasons.
According to the latest publicly available data on the KSCDRC website, which includes statewide statistics up to September 2024, only 15 complaints or appeals of alleged medical negligence were resolved between September 2023 and September 2024. At least half of these cases had been pending for over a decade.
As of September 30, 259 cases of alleged medical negligence—comprising 73 appeals and 186 complaints—remain unresolved out of the 1,285 complaints or appeals filed with the commission since its establishment in 1989. In the past year, two new appeals were filed, raising the total from 1,283 to 1,285.
The Confonet website, which hosts judgements from consumer courts across India, shows that one of the earliest cases of “medical negligence” was filed on February 20, 2010.
Bengaluru Hospital Case
In this case, a woman who sustained serious injuries in a road accident died in 2007, allegedly due to improper administration of anesthesia at a private hospital in Bengaluru. The commission ruled in November 2023, ordering the Peenya-based hospital and two doctors to pay the family Rs 38 lakh along with 6% annual interest from the date of the incident until the payment is realized.
Tumakuru PHC Case
Another case involved a duty doctor at a Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Tumakuru, who appealed against a district commission’s 2014 judgement. The district commission had ordered him to pay Rs 1 lakh to a boy whose arm was amputated.
The boy, who sustained severe injuries in 2013, was treated at the PHC, where the doctor applied a bandage to his arm without consulting an orthopedic surgeon or performing an X-ray. The district commission ruled that the bandage restricted blood flow, resulting in numbness and the eventual amputation of the arm, constituting medical negligence. In September 2024, the state commission dismissed the doctor’s appeal and upheld the district commission’s decision.
Expert Opinions
A senior state commission official stated, “Anyone dissatisfied with a district commission’s decision can approach the state commission. Cases involving claims above Rs 50 lakh can also be filed directly with the state commission. Increasing awareness about consumer rights has led to more people approaching consumer courts, contributing to the backlog.”
A Bengaluru-based lawyer, speaking anonymously, pointed out that proving fault on the part of a doctor or hospital is complex compared to proving service deficiencies or defective products. “Doctors often argue they exercised due care, making it hard to establish negligence. Cases also hinge on the patient’s condition before and after the procedure,” the lawyer explained. Filing a complaint with the state medical council to seek expert opinions is now a common approach.
Dr. Sanjay Sukumar, a medical college professor and expert in the field, noted that resolving medical negligence cases typically takes eight to nine years on average. “A lack of qualified experts to confirm or refute negligence often hampers timely judgements. The pandemic years (2020-21) also contributed to the backlog,” he added.