Short Essay on Medical Negligence – Nothing is nobler than saving lives, and nothing is more ignoble than failing to do so out of sheer negligence. The failure becomes worse – rather worst – when one is a doctor.
Yesterday’s next-to-god status bestowed on the doctors has suffered massive damage today on account of more-than-a-few black sheep’s among them.
Things came to such a pass that aggrieved patients hauled their apron-clad deities to the court, and the courts, in view of the seriousness of the issue, did not hesitate in awarding appropriate damages.
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Doctors are very much under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act and may well be sued for negligence. However, in certain cases where the patient dies, they are also charged under the IPC.
Supreme Court has ruled that ordinary lack of care is not enough for the doctors to be charged under criminal law because this would make the doctors wary of making the last-ditch effort to save a patient for the fear of being charged with a criminal offence.
It is important that doctors perform their job fearlessly. However, the ruling referred to above does not protect the doctors from civil liability if negligence is proved and they may also be charged under the IPC if the negligence is gross enough.
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The Consumer Protection Act comes handy in cases of medical negligence and helps the aggrieved to seek speedy, cheap and efficacious remedy besides instilling accountability through the deterrent value that the punitive damages hold.