Almost 600 complaints of medical negligence registered by patients with the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), a state-level quasi-judicial body, are currently awaiting resolution. Shivkumar Utture, president of the MMC, said the body receives between 100 and 125 complaints of medical negligence every year.
“In most of the cases, about 80 per cent, the matter is not really of negligence, but patients have grievances with the way their cases were handled. Most such cases get resolved amicably,” Utture told The Indian Express.
On Wednesday, the Pune City Police had booked 11 doctors of the Rasiklal M Dhariwal Heartcare and Research Institute, allegedly for causing death of a patient due to negligence while performing a heart surgery. The case was registered after an expert committee from the Sassoon Hospital submitted its report.
In Pune, complaints of negligence are assessed either by the expert committee constituted by the Sassoon Hospital or by the MMC which has jurisdiction all over the state. Authorities at the Sassoon General Hospital said they receive about 20 to 30 complaints of medical negligence every month. In most of the cases, as much as 90 per cent, the negligence is not established.
Utture said in some cases, however, stern decisions have been taken, often by the courts where many of the disputes eventually land up.
Dilip Sarda, a member of the MMC executive committee, said the body had set up four committees to deal with the pending cases, and these committees were handling almost 60 cases every month. “We hope to attain zero pendency in the next one year or so,” he said. “Most of the cases arise due to ineffective communication between the doctor and the patient. This is an issue that has come up repeatedly during the hearings that we have conducted,” he said.
Sarda said the pendency at the MMC was the result of the fact that for 12-13 years, the body had remained largely defunct, being governed by an administrator. “The MMC plays a major role in cases of medical negligence and can cancel registrations of doctors for misconduct. We have received cases where the doctor, who is also the owner of the hospital, has not registered the medical facility. Now, that is clearly negligence. Also, in cases of illegal abortions, strict action is warranted,” he said.
Without referring to the present case of 11 doctors being booked by police, a few noted city cardiologists said it was always important to keep communicating with the family members of the patient.
“No doctor ever wants his or her patient to die. One has to realise that when such major cardiac surgeries take place, emotions are high. With 11 doctors, there are 11 checkpoints, and at each stage of the surgery, the doctor is doing his/her best. A patient might still not survive. There are known complications of any surgery and even if an aortic valve replacement has an almost 97 per cent success rate, there is still a three per cent chance that it might not succeed due to complications like blood-thinning and others,” said interventional cardiologist Dr Jagdish Hiremath.
Another cardiologist, who requested that he not be named, said doctors perhaps needed to make an extra effort to counsel the family members of the patient. “It is important to inform the relatives that a minimally invasive surgery can be converted into an open heart one and that there could be complications. Even after the surgery is over, there could be bleeding. So, it is crucial to ensure that there is a communication process underway with the relatives,” he said.
