Needed: A medical negligence law

CHENNAI: Now that the Supreme Court has spoken, quite emphatically, about medical negligence by awarding Rs 1.8 crore compensation to a child who suffered total blindness, voices that have been calling for a special law and special tribunal to handle medical negligence complaints have grown shriller than ever.
"Unlike in motor accident cases, we are yet to have a statutorily codified mechanism to deal with such complaints," former judge of the Madras high court K Chandru told TOI.Treating it as tortuous claim, compensation could be worked out for damage, injury, pain and loss of income caused by an act of medical negligence, he said.
"If medical fraternity feels the term 'negligence' is stigmatic and disgraceful, doctors could insist on calling it 'medical accidents'," said M Antony Selvaraj, national chairman of All India Association of Jurists. "No one causes loss of lives and limbs deliberately. The criminal element of an 'accident' apart, we must have a law and a special tribunal in place to ensure compensation for the family which suffers on account of negligence," he said.
On Wednesday, virtually operating in vacuum, the Supreme Court used provisions of consumer laws and other common law remedies to award Rs 1.8 crore to a girl who lost vision due to carelessness of doctors who failed to adopt preventive measures at the time of her birth in a hospital at Egmore in Chennai.
Advocate V Raghavachari, recalling the trauma of former national table tennis champion V Chandrasekar, who won a 'record' compensation of Rs 19 lakh in 1995 after suffering partial paralysis due to negligence of doctors at a corporate hospital in Chennai, said courts have fallen back on common law remedies to compute compensation packages.
Making it clear that a compensation cannot be a 'penalty', Raghavachari said patients might suffer due to negligence or due to even lesser skill set of a doctor. So long as the loss is not due to a deliberate act or a shockingly negligent act, compensation commensurate with the status of the patient should be awarded, he said.
Selvaraj said medical negligence cases in which a compensation is awarded are far and few. "We could cite only a few cases of this nature. Award of compensation could not be so rare, and it definitely cannot be left to the discre tion of judges. We need to institutionalise statutory remedies for medical neg ligence victims, and ensure that as in the case of motor acci dent victims these wronged patients too get compensation in time," said Selvaraj.
With a thriving insurance in dustry, it should not be difficult to incorporate a provision to ensure compensation for medical negligence victims, said former special pubic prosecutor for human rights court V Kannadasan. A small additional premium sum will address the issue comprehensively , he said, adding, "Negligence should be treated on a par with accident. No matter a doctor is hauled up or not for any negligence, the victim should get justice." Doubts in doctors' minds that they would be made to face criminal proceedings should be dispelled, as focus is on the victim and not on the author of negligence, he said.