Presentation Transcript

1. Legal Aspects of Healthcare: Landmark Judgments SIU Auditorium, Symbiosis Lavale Campus
2. Name of the Speaker: Dr. Gopinath N. Shenoy Designation: Medico-Legal Consultant Topic: Legal Aspects of Healthcare: Landmark Judgements
3. SUMMARY Dr. Gopinath N. Shenoy stated that Medical Negligence Law is not a parliament made law but it is judges made law through various landmark judgments delivered and pronounced by constitutional codes. Dr. Shenoy first briefed about Bolam’srule as described in one of the famous judgment delivered by UK court and same is followed in India and has become backbone. A patient with an psychiatric ailment went to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist had two methods of treatment The methods were ECT with Muscle Relaxant and ECT without the Muscle Relaxant.
4. The psychiatrist administered an ECT without a muscle relaxant. This lead to convulsions in the patient. The patient suffered a major fracture due to the convulsions. The patient sued the hospital THE JUDGMENT According to Bolam’s law when management can be done in more than one ways and negligence occurs due to one theory then it cannot be considered negligence. Based on this law various judgments have been given. Dr. Shenoy then briefed us about many examples of cases pertaining to this Bolam’s Law.
5. 2nd English Judgement Roe v/s English Judgment A patient with an infected toe was given spinal anesthesia which was given by the nurse. The patient didn’t come out of spinal anesthesia and the patient suffered permanent parapledgia. The ampule of the instrument used had an opening. Phenol had percolated in the ampule and hence patient could not come out of the anesthesia. This is the Forceability Law states that if a push is not forceable , compensation is not administered.
6. Dr. Shenoy gave an example of one of the best Indian Judgements. Jacob Matthew v/s State of Punjab A patient suffering a terminal malignancy and Dr. Jacob Matthew let the patient remain hospitalized. Once the family realized that the patient started gasping they alerted the nurse who brought a Oxygen Cylinder. Which was empty. A new Oxygen Cylinder was bought but by the time Jacob Matthews arrived the patient had died. The relatives registered an FIR against the hospital and the doctor in Criminal Court. The case further went to the Supreme Court. Justice Lahoti said that anything and everything that goes wrong by the medical practitioner, criminal machinery should not be moved.
7. Dr. GopinathShenoy gave another example of an Indian Judgement PrashantaDidhanta v/s Nizam of Hyderabad The patient had a chronic respiratory problem and the patient was hospitalized in Nizam Hospital. The patient was detected with a posterior Mediastinal Mass and after going through an excision biopsy the general medicine department referred the patient to the Cardio-Thoracic department. In this department it was detected that the mass was attached to the Spinal Cord. While excising this mass the neurosurgeon was also called and the patient was operated under anesthesia. When he became conscious it was realized that the patient had suffered from permanent paraplegia of both the limbs.
8. The case was filed against the hospital and the doctors in the Supreme Court. The verdict was given in favor of the patient giving him the compensation of 1 crore and the National Commission stated that cross-speciality was done in this case and which is against the Law. The doctors are not allowed to practice cross-speciality. Sir also said this above cross specialty law is exempted under 3 conditions He is a doctor of General Medicine He is a doctor of Emergency Medicine He is a doctor of General Surgery. Conclusion The Supreme Court has become liberal in giving compensation as the Medical Laws against the doctors have become more strict than earlier.
9. Report Prepared By: AkhilaNayak Anisha Mehta Ebrahim Khan Nikhil Dhorepatil Shirin Khan Swati Sonik YogitaPatil (MBA –HHM 2013-15)