Visakhapatnam: The District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission – I has held a corporate hospital negligent and deficient for providing misleading information in the scan report to the patient. A fine of Rs.21.60 Lakhs was imposed on the corporate hospital as compensation for the deficiency.
The facts of the case are that the patient was having abdomen pain and was admitted in the corporate hospital and a scan was performed by the radiologist. The report issued by the radiologist said that the gall bladder was distended and appeared normal with no obvious intra-luminal masses as calculi seen. Gall bladder wall thickness, peri GB fat planes and uterus was normal in size. Also the report did not mention anything fibroid similar to the gall bladder. However, the patient was gall bladder was already removed through laproscopic surgery more than ten years ago.
Unfortunately the patient again had abdominal pain after ten days and this time she went a complete abdomen scan and ultrasound in a different medical centre. The report of the medical centre stated gall bladder cholecystectomy with a bulky uterus with focal altered echotexture-adenomyosis changes. The district commission held that since the gall bladder was removed more than ten years ago and the scan report for the other medical centre also stated the same, it effectively meant that the radiologist of the corporate hospital has given false report and hence the radiologist and the corporate hospital were held negligent.
