New Delhi : In response to an RTI from PTI to the Ministry of Health(Mohfw) it has been revealed that the ministry has taken up for consideration the healthcare sector’s long-standing demand to frame guidelines for determining medical negligence cases. The RTI reply has also revealed that at present the ministry has not framed any guidelines for determining medical negligence.
The Supreme Court in the Jacob Mathew case in 2005 has directed the Centre to frame statutory rules in consultation with the then healthcare regulator Medical Council of India (MCI) to deal with medical negligence cases. “Unfortunately the direction of the Supreme Court has not been complied with by the Mohfw. As a stop gap arrangement, the Supreme Court had framed guidelines according to which the investigating officer should follow while proceeding against a doctor accused of medical negligence which include opinion from an independent medical expert. The medical expert should preferably be from a government hospital and an expert in the subject of the negligence. But it has been seen that the investigating officer generally come under pressure of the patient and their relatives and book the doctor without taking the opinion of the medical expert” said Adv Mahendrakumar Bajpai, an authority in law on medical negligence of Institute of Medicine & Law.
The non-framing of the guidelines for determining medical negligence has led to a chaos in the overall healthcare environment. This has led to the deteoriation of the healthcare environment in which both the patient as well as doctors are the sufferers. On the one hand the patient have to run from pillar to post to seek justice win negligence cases while on the other hand doctors are harassed by false allegation of negligence with the sole aim of extracting money. Guidelines and rules for medical negligence will bring lot of clarity urge legal experts dealing in medical negligence cases.