Mohali : Healthcare at Home fined Rs 10 lakhs for Medical Negligence

Mohali: In probably the first of its kind cases, a home healthcare provider has been directed by the Consumer forum to give compensation on account of negligence and deficiency in service.

The case is that of one Mohinder Pal Sharma, who availed the home nursing services of Healthcare at Home Private Limited, through its SAS nagar branch, for his ailing father Satpal Sharma, who was suffering from heart, cervical and respiratory problems since 2011, reports HT.

The complainant alleged that the nurses who came through the service were inexperienced, and the female nurses attending to his father changed his catheter and wrongly inserted it due to which urine could not pass for the whole day. The error was detected on examination later in the evening and when the catheter was changed blood started coming with urine. The patient’s condition deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital again.

The district consumer disputes redressal forum, finding the organisation guilty directed the home healthcare company to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation for deploying inexperienced nurses to tend to a critically ill elderly patient

“Both nurses without holding a valid diploma provided treatment of catheterisation without a male specialist nurse. It not only amounts to deficiency in service but also medical negligence besides unfair trade practice,” said the consumer forum presided over by Amrinder Singh Sidhu.

The council of the healthcare company in response to this argued that their company only provides its specialized services to patients with qualified staff. However, the forum not convinced with the argument said that  “Healthcare at Home India catheterization literature states that ideally a male nurse should catheterise a male patient and a female nurse for a female one. Male nurse was available but still female nurses were deployed to catheterise a male patient which is a deficiency in service,”