What Is Medical Negligence?
Medical negligence may be a combination of two words. The second word solely
describes the meaning, though the meaning of negligence has not been described
in a proper way it's an act recklessly done by an individual leading to
foreseeable damages to the opposite. Negligence is an offense under tort, IPC,
Indian Contracts Act, Consumer Protection Act.
Medical negligence is defined because of the negligent, improper, or
unskilled treatment of a patient by a health care professional. This will
include negligent care from a nurse, physician, surgeon, pharmacist, dentist, or
other health care workers. Medical negligence forms the idea for many medical
malpractice claims where the victim is saying injury from medical treatment.
Mistakes or Negligence within the medical community may cause minor injuries or
some serious sorts of injuries and sometimes these sorts of mistakes may even
cause death. Since no man is ideal during this world, it's evident that a
skilled individual and knows a specific subject also can commit mistakes during
his practice. To err is human but to duplicate an equivalent mistake thanks to
one’s carelessness is negligence. The elemental reason behind medical error or
medical negligence is that the carelessness of the said doctors or medical
professionals it is often observed in various cases where due care isn't taken
during the diagnosis, during operations, sometimes while injecting anesthesia,
etc.
For example, after a severe operation of a patient, he's likely to urge infected
by many diseases due to certain reasons which may include loss of blood,
weakness, and high doses of medicines. In due course, standard care is predicted
from the doctor to offer premedication regarding certain infectious diseases.
If
a doctor fails to try to do so thanks to which a patient suffers from some
infection which will cause tons of harm or maybe death in adverse cases, the
doctor is claimed to possess committed medical negligence or malpractice.
This article focuses on explaining negligence under various laws, professional
negligence, medical negligence, and landmark also as recent cases in India.
This
provides information on liability that will be incurred by the victim of the
medical malpractice. It aims at providing information about the subject to make
the maximum amount of awareness possible.
The failure to suits this which any ordinary professional would have done
properly amounts to professional negligence liable under the law. This paper
discusses Medical Negligence intimately within the following part.
Essentials:
Doctor’s duty to attend to the patient with care
Medicine is such a profession where a practitioner is meant to possess the
requisite knowledge and skill needed for the aim and features a duty to exercise
an inexpensive duty of care while handling the patient. The quality of care
depends upon the character of the profession. A surgeon or anesthetist are going
to be determined by the quality of the typical practitioner therein field while
within the case of specialists, a better skill is required.
If the doctor or a specialist doesn’t attend a patient admitted in an emergency
or under his surveillance and therefore the patient dies or becomes a victim of
consequences that would are avoided with ordinary care from the doctor, the
doctor is often held liable under medical negligence. This was held in Sishir
Rajan Saha v. The state of Tripura, A.I.R. 2002 Guwahati 102, that if a doctor
didn't pay enough attention to the patients in government hospitals as a result
of which the patient suffers, the doctor is often held susceptible to pay
compensation to the patient.
Moreover, the liability of the doctor can't be invoked now then and he can’t be
held liable simply because something has gone wrong or fastening the liability,
a very high degree of such negligence was required to be proved, A.I.R. 2010
S.C. 1162
A doctor or a medical man when attends to his patients owe him the subsequent
duties of care:
- A requirement of care choose whether to undertake the case
- A requirement of care choose what treatment to offer
- A requirement of care within the administration of the treatment.
When you attend a doctor, you expect to be seen promptly and attentively, and at
an inexpensive cost. You expect the doctor to be intimate with the newest
advances in his field of specialty, and educate you about your diagnosis and
prognosis, and explore the simplest possible solution to your health issue. In
short, you expect to be healed. Except for many people, what they expect is way
from what they receive.
Doctor acting in a negligent manner
It is well accepted that within the cases of gross medical negligence the
principle of res ipso loquitur is to be applied. Res Ipso loquitur means things
represent themselves; while deciding the liability of the doctor, it's to be
established that the negligence acknowledged should be a breach in ordinary care
which a standard practitioner would are ready to keep.
A doctor isn't an insurer for the patient, inability to cure the patient
wouldn't amount to negligence but carelessness leading to an adverse condition
of the patient would.
In Gian Chand v. Vinod Kumar Sharma A.I.R. 2008 H.P. 97 it had been held that
shifting of the patient from one ward to a different despite the need for
instant treatment to tend to the patient leading to damage to the patient’s
health than the doctor or administrator of the hospital shall be held liable
under negligence.
Conclusion
It is not stated that doctors are negligent or irresponsible but while
performing the duty which needs plenty of patience and care, often many
practitioners fail or breach their responsibility towards the patient. Medicine
which is one of the noblest professions requires setting a realm that will
benefit the victims of varied diseases. Many doctors even the specialist
sometimes neglects small things to be taken care of while practicing which can
end in damages to the patients that would are avoided or sometimes even the
death of the patients
Not only for medicine but the law shall also be made
applicable to all or any of the professionals practicing in several areas which
require a requisite amount of skill and duty of care. People in our country are
already victims of many diseases and are dying thanks to an equivalent, let’s
make efforts to scale back these deaths and specialize in improvising the
profession so that people don't die within the place where they are available to
urge healed.
References:
- The Law Dictionary
- Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
- W. Prosser, Handbook on the Law of Torts 145-49 (4th ed. 1971)
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