Police Authorities cannot proceed against medical professional in routine manner: MP HC comes to rescue of a doctor
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a plea alleging medical negligence against a doctor, emphasizing that prosecution of medical professionals requires expert opinion. The bench, led by Justice MS Bhatti, referenced the Supreme Court's judgment in Jacob Mathew while hearing the petition of a man who sought the filing of an FIR against doctors at a private hospital.
The petitioner's claim was that his son's death, due to alleged negligence, amounted to culpable homicide.
The bench observed that the Supreme Court also referred to the "Bolam test” as the standard which determines that a medical professional has performed his duty to provide care to the patient and that the procedure meant to treat the patient, has been duly followed by the medical professionals.
The case goes back to 2022 when the son of the petitioner was admitted to Ashish Hospital, Jabalpur on 27.1.2022 at about 11:15 AM for the purpose of surgery of a stone. On 27.1.2022, at about 8:00 PM, the surgery was conducted for about one hour and after the surgery, the patient was shifted to a normal ward. On 29.1.2022 at about 7:00 AM, the patient started feeling pain in his chest and fell down. The petitioner claimed that the patient was not provided any emergency medical care back, therefore, the patient died due to cardiac arrest.
The Court Order:
The bench observed that the complaints moved by the petitioner were taken note of and the Chief Medical and Health Officer vide his communication dated 8.6.2022 constituted a committee and the said committee, which consisted of two Doctors including one Doctor being an expert in the field of surgery, submitted its report and accordingly, in view of the said report the Authorities could have taken no action.
The counsel for the petitioner has placed heavy reliance on the report of the Medical Board, Umaria but the same is of no assistance to him as the said committee did not inspect the Hospital. However, if the report is perused from any angle nowhere suggests that the Doctors conducted the surgery in negligent and rash manner or the Doctors had not followed a settled procedure of surgery in terms of medical science. “This Court is of the considered view that as the onus was on the petitioner to establish that there was rashness or negligence on the part of the Doctors concerned and said onus having not been discharged in terms of the law laid down in Jacob Mathew (supra), this Court is of the view that the petition filed by the petitioner is devoid of the merits,” the court added.
The bench further mentioned:
It is reiterated that the Police officials cannot be expected to act in a mechanical manner when they are clueless about the ailment suffered by the patient, diagnosis by the medical professional, and the treatment so provided to the patient. The said procedure falls within the domain of the experts of the medical science and, therefore, the FIR cannot be lodged in a routine manner in view of the observations made by the Supreme Court in Jacob Mathews (supra).
To view the order, Click on the below link:
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