IMA opposes NHRC move to hear med negligence cases in open

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has opposed National Human Rights Commission's decision to publicly hear medical negligence cases, saying creating another forum for patients to complain without any "clear-cut guidelines" will add to the ongoing cases of violence against doctors.
In the first-ever instance, NHRC will be holding a two-day 'Public Hearing on Right to Healthcare' at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Deonar (Mumbai) from tomorrow, to hear complaints of human rights violations in the public and private healthcare services in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Rajasthan.
"IMA feels that the right way is to go about doing this is to file complaints with the State Medical Council. It is the duty of the State Medical Council to then decide the case on basis of its merit and refer it to the consumer court for compensation if any deficiency of service is found; refer it to criminal court if they find any violation of IPC or refer it to NHRC if they find any violation of human rights.

"If none of the above is found then the case should be closed on priority to avoid any unnecessary harassment of the doctor," said Dr S S Agarwal, National President and Dr K K Aggarwal, Secretary General of IMA.
It is not right to subject a medical doctor to investigation and harassment simultaneously by the police, consumer court, NHRC court and the ethics committee of medical council, the statement said.
IMA has written to the Prime Minister of India to amend the MCI act and give more powers to the medical council.

The Commission is scheduled to hear around 125 complaints filed against erring hospitals from four states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Rajasthan. This includes as many as 55 cases of medical negligence from Maharashtra, 30 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, and 10 from Goa.

The public hearing is being organised in collaboration with the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), a civil society network on health issues and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
At present, patients who have grievances against private hospitals go either to the medical council or the consumer court or the police.