MADURAI: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Madurai recently observed that medical professionals should shoulder their responsibilities with utmost care and caution as common people treat doctors as Gods on earth and completely surrender themselves to them.
The commission, comprising president M Piravi Perumal and member P Shanmugapriya, made the observation while directing a private hospital to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to a woman petitioner, for the mental agony, pain, anxiety and indignation suffered by her while undergoing treatment for ectopic pregnancy.
According to the petitioner, who is also a lawyer, she underwent treatment at the aforesaid hospital for four days in September 2023. She alleged that she was mistreated and was not even provided medicines and food on time. Though the petitioner had informed the hospital authorities of possessing a cashless insurance coverage, she was asked to pay the bill in money against the claims and told that she will get a refund later, once the insurance money was received by the hospital.
Subsequently, the petitioner opted for another private hospital, owing to severe pain, where she realised that there was no mention of the administration of an injection with major side-effects, on the discharge summary. However, the counsel of the hospital refused the averments and allegations terming them as imaginations, and claimed that the petitioner was provided the best treatment, sources said.
Meanwhile, the commission, which stated that the medicines administered in the hospital were proper, however, acknowledged negligence and deficiency in service for not getting an informed-consent from the patient and failing to mention the administration of the drug in the discharge summary. The commission also found that the hospital did not take proper steps to process the petitioner's insurance claims.