Skip to main content

Duty Of Care Does Not End With Surgery: NCDRC

In NATIONAL CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, FIRST APPEAL NO. 101 OF 2016,  PANKAJ R. TOPRANI  vs BOMBAY HOSPITAL AND RESEARCH & MEDICAL & 2 ORS.,  the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered the Bombay Hospital located in South Mumbai area, to pay Rs. 30 lakh as compensation to a deceased patient's family on account of negligence shown by the hospital. The doctors have been directed to pay Rs. 1 lakh jointly.

The NCDRC observed that :-

In a catena of judgements, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has laid down the essential components of ‘Negligence’ as follows:-

1) The existence of a duty to take care which the defendant owes to the plaintiff;
2) The breach of that duty towards the plaintiff and
3) Damage or injury by the complainant as a result of such breach.

The ‘Duty of Care’ for a medical professional starts from the time the patient gives an implied consent for his treatment and the medical professional accepts him as a patient for treatment, irrespective of financial considerations. This duty starts from taking the history of the patient and covers all aspects of the treatment, like writing proper case notes, performing proper clinical examination, advising necessary tests and investigations, making a proper diagnosis, and carrying out careful treatment.

In 1969, the Supreme Court in the case of Dr.Laxman Balakrishna Joshi v. Dr. Trimbak
Babu Godbole AIR 1969 SC 128 held:-

A person who holds himself out ready to give medical advice and treatment impliedly undertakes that he is possessed of skill and knowledge for that purpose,

1. he owes a duty of care in deciding whether to undertake the case,
2. he owes a duty of care in deciding what treatment to give and,
3. he owes a duty of care in the administration of that treatment.
A breach of any of these duties gives a right of action for negligence to the patient.

This means that when a medical professional, who possesses a certain degree of skill and knowledge, decides to treat a patient, he is duty bound to treat him with a reasonable degree of skill, care, and knowledge.

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Appellate authorities under Special Statutes cannot be asked to condone delay

Madras High Court in R.Gowrishankar vs. The Commissioner of Service Tax has held that Appellate authorities cannot be asked to condone the delay, beyond the extended period of limitation A Division Bench comprising of Justices S. Manikumar and D. Krishnakumar, made this observation while considering an appeal filed against Single Bench order declining to set aside the order made in the condone delay petition filed by the petitioner to condone 223 days in filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Service Tax (Appeals). Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/appellate-authorities-special-statutes-cannot-asked-condone-delay-beyond-extended-period-limitation-madras-hc/
Post a Comment
Read more

'Seize assets to pay damages to accident victim'

Her story might be an inspiration for the physically challenged but justice has remained elusive for her. In 2008, a bus accident left research engineer S Thenmozhi, 30, paraplegic. In April 2013, the motor accident claims tribunal directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to provide her a compensation of 57.9 lakh. However, TNSTC refused to budge and on Tuesday a city court ordered attaching of movable assets of the transport corporation. Thenmozhi was employed in C-DOT, a telecom technology development centre in Bangalore. On July 21, 2008, she was coming to Chennai in a private bus. Around 2am, the bus had a flat tyre and the driver parked it on the left side of the road near Pallikonda in Vellore district on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. While the tyre was being changed, a TNSTC bus of Dharmapuri division hit the stationary bus. The rear part of the bus was smashed and passengers were injured. Thenmozhi who had a seat at the back of the bus suffered...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mumbai ITAT rules income of offshore discretionary trust is subject to tax in India

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently determined the following issue in the affirmative in the case of Manoj Dhupelia: Should the income of an offshore discretionary trust be subject to tax in India, if no distributions have been made to beneficiaries in India? The question arose from appeals filed by individual beneficiaries in relation to a Lichtenstein-based trust, the Ambrunova Trust and Merlyn Management SA (the Trust) with the ITAT. It is important to note that the individuals in this case were amongst those first identified by the Government of India (GOI) as holding undeclared bank accounts in Lichtenstein. The ITAT ruling raises the following issues: Taxation of Trust Corpus: ITAT classified the corpus of the trust as "undisclosed income" and declared it taxable in the hands of the beneficiaries. Taxation of Undistributed Income: ITAT refused to draw a distinction between the corpus and undistributed income from the trust and declared i...
Post a Comment
Read more