11 Commandments to judge medical negligence

Medical negligence- There I said it. Words that instigates terror for any medical professional. It not only makes doctors stand in front of a court (or courts for that matter) being treated akin to a murderer but also makes them doubt why they took up medical profession at all. "We became doctors to save lives, not for this harassment ", I hear them say.

There is indeed a point to be made, with rising cases against medical professionals. Not only this, against one complaint we see multiplicity of cases. One Medical negligence complaint can separately be filed in the consumer court for compensation, as a criminal case in the district/high court or even Supreme Court, and as well as in the disciplinary committees of medical councils for professional punishments. While it is not for me or anyone else, except the respective courts, to comment on the validity of such complaints, yet it is important for every medical professional to know as to what constitutes Medical Negligence.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court in, Kusum Sharma & Others vs Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre and others, where the bench comprising of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Harjit Singh Bedi beautifully summarized how to identify medical negligence in a case. Not only should these points be kept in mind by all the respective courts while deciding such cases, its also important for practitioners to know, where the law stands on medical negliegence.