Medical Negligence-a Deficiency in Services Under Consumer Protection Act, 1986

Medical Negligence is on rise and has become a problematic issue. Large number of such cases is coming to the court seeking redressal of their grievance. Today doctors are money minded and they keep dragging the patient admission in the hospital for as many days as they can to make money as much as they can. Doctor patient relationship of trust, faith has undergone a deep change. It has become a common practice, even if there is an emergency case the hospital first ask a certain amount of money to be deposited with the hospital to even start examining the patient otherwise they don't even bother to provide first aid to the patient. Further, adding to this is the bad treatment or doing treatment of some other problem not the one which is to be treated, aggravates the problem not only for the patient but for all those who are related to him. There are circumstances when the patient is treated for something else and when his condition detiorates he is discharged by the doctor on account of lack of equipments and the patient is referred to some other hospital. In this context this paper will discuss various laws dealing with medical negligence and the rights and remedies available therein.