Doctor-patient relationship in focus at international meet

A conference organised by the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) here will dwell on concerns over deterioration of doctor-patient relationship and awareness on patients' rights among other medico-legal aspects, organisers said on Friday.

Over 500 delegates from India and countries like Bhutan, Singapore, Taiwan and Myanmar, will participate in the International Conference on Law in Medicine 2017 scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 at the NUJS campus here.

"Doctor patient relationship, medico-legal aspects in treatment, insurance industry, awareness of patients' rights and duties as well as professional regulations will be discussed in the symposium," Jayanta Das, Organising Secretary of the conference, told media persons here.

The conference, in its third edition, has become more significant this year given the present scenario of "continuous harassment of medical professionals" in West Bengal, organisers said.

It's a joint initiative by the varsity and Dillons Kidney Foundation based here.

Recently a section of doctors in West Bengal observed a day-long protest against what they said is a series of "relentless violence against doctors and other medical professionals" and complete inaction on the part of the police and administration.

According to NUJS Vice Chancellor P. Ishwara Bhat, the conference seeks to bridge the gap between the patients and doctors in the domain of awareness of rights and duties through insights shared by legal eagles as well as medical practitioners.

"As much as we want communication channels to be smooth between doctors and patients, we also believe a lot can be achieved if both parties understand their rights, duties and ethical concerns in medicine," Bhat said.

Organising Secretary Das said the deliberations are aimed at educating youngsters.

"Since they are the future, they must know what one means by medical negligence... how it can be tackled... when it's not a case of negligence... etc," Das added.

A host of international legal instruments as well as the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017 will also be included in the discussions.

--IANS

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